GRECIAN AND ROMAN 



MYTHOLOGY 



V 



BY M. A, DWIGHT. 

W\TH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE BY TAYLER LEWIS, 
Prof, of Greek and Latin in the University of New York. 

ii.30 A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN OUTHKB. 




THIRD EDITION. 













A. S. BA.JSES & COMPANY, 

NEW l^RK AND CHICAGO. 
187& 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849 k 
M. A. DWIGHT, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District 
of New York. 



CONTENTS 



Introductory Notice, ',..-. 9 

Introduction, .17 

Ancient Deities, . . . 51 

Modern, Superior Deities, . . . . » . , . .113 

Genii and Inferior Deities, 253 

Demi-gods and Heroes. 297 

Mythic Fictions, 411 

Appendix, 439 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 



GRAVED ON WOOD, BY J. D. 7ELTEB, 



Page 

FRONTISPIECE, 163 

PAN, 55 

PAROiE, 60 

FURIES, 67 

CHARON, ' 75 

HARPY, 79 

RIVER-GOD, 87 

JUPITER, 112 

JUPITER AMMON, 118 

JUPITER PLUVIUS, 121 

MAP OF OLYMPIA, 124 

JUNO, 137 

VESTA, 141 

CYBELE, 148 

NEPTUNE, 152 

PLUTO, 156 

APOLLO MUSAGETES, 188 

DIANA OF THE CHASE, 199 

DIANA TRIFORMIS, 201 

MINERVA, 215 

MINERVA'S SHIELD, 217 

STJLCAN, 233 



Page 

MERCURY, 247 

COUNCIL OF JUPITER, •• 249 

ONE OF THE LARES, 257 

SILENOS, 260 

CLIO, 269 

SIREN, 273 

GANYMEDES, 275 

^SCULAPIUS, 281 

TELESPHOROS. 282 

TERMINUS.. • • 285 

PERSEUS,- s 300 

MEDUSA OF S n, ROZZI PALACE, 307 

BELLER'/PIIJN AND CHIMiERA, 310 

HERCULES AND SERPENT, 314 

HERCULES AND CERBERUS, 321 

CASTOR AND POLLUX, • •• > 357 

MINERVA AND PARIS,--- ••■ • 386 

LAOCOON, ■ 396 

TRITON, -••• 411 

CENTAUR, *15 

ENDYMION. •• 429 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



This work on Mythology, as stated in the first edition, is compiled 
from various authors,* who have treated the subject either directly or 
indirectly ; and the author is happy to find that the metho d adopted 
meets with approbation. 

The diligent researches of students and antiquarians have been 
richly rewarded. Still the subject seems inexhaustible, and is ever 
gathering fresh interest from the result of new investigations. There 
is yet much to be learned of the foundations upon which the history 
of Mythology rests ; and Miiller remarks, that " this must be left to 
the highest of all historical sciences — one whose internal relations are 
scarcely yet dreamt of — the history of the human mind." 

* Heeren, Muller ; Moritz, Millin, Wordsworth, Smith, Anthon, Elmes, &>?.. &c 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 



A myth is not a fable, neither is mythology the history of fables regarded as mere 
creations of the imagination, or as introduced merely to supply the chasms which are 
found in all the early historical records of the human race. It may, on the other hand, 
be truly said, that this branch of knowledge, extravagant and unsatisfactory as it may 
seem to some, does actually offer more important truth to the contemplative mind 
than is often furnished by the most accurate annals belonging to later periods of na- 
tional life. It is very plausibly contended by some, that modern history, and, above 
all, that of our own country or period, should have the first place assigned to it in all 
our institutions of learning, and especially in our common schools. The more mod- 
ern, on this very account the more valuable. The dullest chapter of recent history, 
repeating ever the same trite page of hollow diplomacy, and corrupt political intrigue, 
or stale revolutionary demagoguism, is deemed of more account than that rich nursery 
oi ideas, the old Scandinavian Mythology. The history of the annexation of Texas, 
or of the Mexican war, is of far more importance, it is thought, and should occupy a 
far larger space in our historical school books, than those wondrous and eventful pe- 
riods in the world's life, the early heroic ages of Greece and Rome. And this simply 
because it is modern — because it is our own history-irrespective of the great end of the 
study as a means of mental culture, and as suggestive of those views which have regard 
to humanity in its most instructive and most interesting relations. 

We cannot stop to controvert these positions, or to maintain by argument those that 
are opposed to them. The mere statement of the different grounds assumed is enough 
for any thinking mind. Nothing, we contend, presents a more rich and suggestive 
field of thought, than the earliest ideas entertained by men in respect to natural and 
supernatural, moral and theological truth. Not that we would, without much excep- 
tion, endorse the maxim of Cicero in respect to antiquity — Quo proprlus aberat ab ortu 
et divina progenie, hoc melius ea quae erant vera cemebat* — but because these fresh, 
primitive conceptions of the world's early morning may be supposed to present, more 
truly than any subsequent opinions, the universal consciousness, or spontaneous 
thought of the race in respect to the first elements of moral, religious, and philosophi- 

* Tusc. Disp. i. 26. The less its distance from the birth and divine stock of the race, the more 
clearly it discerned those things that are true. 



10 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 

cal truth. If we would study profoundly the moral sense of mankind, and learn its 
most truthful and unalloyed decisions, we must go back to periods anterior to those 
which may be styled either political or philosophical. If we would truly know how 
deeply the religious element enters into the very constitution of humanity, so as to 
pervade all the early aspects of its social and political life — if we would rightly estimate 
how strongly the moral ideas of law, and sin, and retribution, and expiation, hav« 
maintained their hold upon the conscience, and how inseparably the thoughts of an in- 
visible world, and of invisible agencies of a higher order than the human, have been as- 
sociated from the start with all the relations of the present existence — we must go far 
back in antiquity, and, with the Bible in one hand and the old Mythologies in the other, 
trace the war between Heaven and Earth, between the strong religious instincts and 
the ever corrupting and distorting human depravity, between the purity and simplicity 
of the early theism and that tendency to the physical, the pantheistical, and the atheis- 
tical, which the world has ever exhibited, except as it has been from time to time inter- 
rupted and turned back by a succession of special divine interpositions. 

These first thoughts of our race are most important to us in any view we can take; 
whether regarded as the result of some universal primitive revelation becoming after- 
wards gradually more and more corrupted, or as the spontaneous workings of the hu- 
man soul in the freshest, and, in some respects, the purest and most vigorous period 
of its existence. Even in this age of physical science, it may be maintained, without 
extravagance, that these early moral and spiritual developments are of far more impor- 
tance than the geological changes that are discovered in the material structure of our 
earth, and that some acquaintance with the primitive agencies at work in the forma- 
tion of religions, and polities, and languages, may be of more value, even in our com- 
mon schools, than the boasted knowledge which traces the formation of rocks and 
strata, and makes such a parade of its utility in the discovery of mines and beds of 
coal. 

Especially is such a view interesting to those who hold — as they conceive, on the 
best of grounds — that the supernatural actually entered largely into the earliest history 
of our world, and that the first condition of mankind, instead of being that of the gross, 
savage state, such as is now witnessed in many parts of our earth, was characterized 
by a purity, a simplicity, yet, at the same time, an elevation of moral and religious 
truth, which became lost in the ages that soon succeeded. In support of such a view, 
strengthened as it is by the best light to be derived from profane history and confirmed 
by divine revelation, the early mythologies and religions of mankind may be regarded 
as furnishing the most important evidence. They show the subsequent transitions 
from this comparatively pure and simple state, to one more physical more pantheistic, 
more atheistic, and, of course, more irreligious, although attended with scientific pro- 
gress, with advance in philosophy, and improvements in the arts and refinements of 
civilized life. 

The thoughts here presented are capable of great expansion . Time and space, how 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 1 1 

ever, will not permit us to dwell on them. They are simply suggested as evidence of 
the great value of mythological studies, and an argument for their introduction into all 
our schools, from the highest to the lowest. 

Mythology belongs jointly to the departments of history and philosophy, and is, in 
fact, the primitive form of both. Under each of these aspects, namely, the historical 
and the philosophical, we discover the origin of those early transitions which give char- 
acter to its subsequent developments. In the one, the primitive theology, with its 
purer, though simpler, ideas of the moral and the supernatural, and its intensely re- 
ligious notion of the divine nature as one universal God viewed mainly in the rela- 
tions of Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge, tends to pass over into a mystical pantheism, 
assuming a mixed political and philosophical aspect ; from whence its next descent is 
into an occult system of physics. In the other, or historical development, there be- 
come gradually blended with the old patriarchal traditions of supernatural intervention 
and of the real displays of divine attributes, the acts of the early heroes and founders of 
nations, immensely magnified in the refractions of the obscure media through which 
they have been transmitted, and in this way confounded with the divine realities which 
lie beyond. Thus the pure belief of one creating, governing, rewarding, and punishing 
God, which the infancy of the world — in this respect like the infancy of the individual— 
so easily received in all the grandeur of its simplicity, passed gradually into a polythe- 
ism representing the powers of nature ; whilst the providential interpositions of the an- 
cient patriarchal Deity who walked with the early races of men, and frequently mani- 
fested himself in acts both of benevolence and vengeance, were mingled with the heroic 
exploits of the deified dead. In this way, too, and from this source, did some of those 
sublime moral attributes, which are ascribed to this primitive Deity in the Old Testa- 
ment, come down in the epithets of the poets ; their glory indeed obscured— 

As when the sun, new risen, 
Looks through the horizontal misty air, 
Shorn of his beams- 
yet still possessing a moral grandeur, giving evidence of an older and holier birth, and 
often startling the reader by the associations in which they are found, or the strange 
contrast they present to the historico-mythological actions of the sensual divinities to 
whom they are immediately ascribed. That reader must, indeed, be morally and spir- 
itually blind, who cannot see, in many of these sublime epithets of Homer and Ms- 
chylus, evidences of a far purer origin than those fables of the Cretan Zeus, or the 
Delian Apollo, or the Theban Bacchus, with which they are profanely mingled. 

Thus viewed, mythology comes in time to present itself under three main aspects: 
by a careful analysis of which, some degree of order may be introduced among those 
blended elements that would otherwise seem only a chaos of unmeaning and contra- 
dictory legends. These may be styled the physical, the historical, and the moral. 
The origin of the two first we have attempted sligh iy to trace. The tlurd may be 



12 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 

regarded as the still preserved remains of that primitive character from which the 
others are a degeneracy, or as the relics of the old patriarchal religion, still present as a 
pervading element, and readily discoverable by any one who is not prejudiced in favor 
of some exclusively physical or historical theory. 

No doubt some theological writers in former times may have gone to an absurd 
extreme, in endeavoring to trace connections between the Grecian or Egyptian fables 
and incidents recorded in the Scriptures. There were, it is true, many striking sug- 
gestions of this kind which came up very naturally from the stories of Prometheus, of 
Pandora's box, of the wars of the Gods with the Giants and Titans, of the Golden 
Age, and of the Flood ; but these writers rendered the whole thing absurd by endeavor- 
ing to carry out their views in the history of Joshua, of Jephthah, of Samson, and in 
other cases that presented points of mere casual resemblance. The question, never- 
theless, may be rationally entertained, whether the later authorities, especially of the 
German schools, have not gone very much too far towards the opposite extreme of the 
exclusively physical hypothesis. 

There can be no doubt that this latter aspect is predominant in all ancient mythology. 
Here was that first travelled road from the supernatural to the natural or pantheistic, 
which Paul so graphically sets forth. Men did not like to retain the pure knowledge 
of God. It was too simple and child-like ; it had too little of the philosophical. They 
were drawn to the creature, and worshipped the creature more than the creator, or in 
addition to the creator, as there are some grounds for rendering it. Thus the world by 
■wisdom lost the true divine knowledge. The early men, in deifying the powers of 
nature, followed the same tendency which, in modern times, leads the merely scientific 
mind to interpose as much of visible cause and effect, or as many secondary agencies 
as possible, between ourselves and a far off personal Deity. The next most pervading 
aspect is doubtless that which we have styled the historical, and yet, through the whole, 
the old moral element plainly manifests itself to all who rightly look for it on the 
ground of the early historical revelations of the Scriptures and their declarations re- 
specting the course of human depravity. 

We may illustrate our meaning by taking the case of the Homeric Zeus. The physi- 
cal aspect here makes itself quite manifest even in Homer. In Hesiod it is altogether 
predominant. Elsewhere it is so evident that the merest tyro cannot mistake it. Zeus 
is the aether— Zeis AiQfip—tke universal pervading fire, as Her6, or Juno, is the lower 
atmosphere, Neptune, the liquid element, and Pluto, the earth. To the historical or 
Cretan Zeus, no careful student of antiquity can be at a loss in ascribing those scandal- 
ous actions which so mar some of the pages of Homer, and those unfilial proceedings 
which so much offended Plato. These had doubtless been transferred from the old dead 
hero or demi-god, whose exploits some early bard or tradition had first compared to, 
and then identified with, the divine. Again, with all this, there is no mistaking a 
higher and older element — a moral elevation which appears in the epithets employed in 
rslerence to the Homeric Zeus, and in the general character ascribed in the Iliad to 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 13 

•'the Father of gods and men," so superior to that of the other Homeric divinities, and 
which must have had a different and purer source. Thus then, it may be said, we have 
finally blended into one personality, the physical Zeus, the creation of some ancient 
Orphic and pantheistic mysticism early seeking something more philosophical and 
poetical than the simple primitive belief; next, the historical Zeus, arising from the 
corruption of some early Cretan legends ; and both of these, in time, superadded to the 
conception of the old patriarchal Zeus coming down amidst it all, and yet preserving 
something of the obscured attributes of the ancient universal Deity of the Scriptures. 

The author of this volume has undoubtedly made this physical aspect of the ancient 
mythology very predominant. In so doing she has followed the most of those very 
learned English and German authorities whom she has taken as her guides. The fact 
is not mentioned by way of censure ; for the whole object of this introductory note is 
to commend to public notice both the work and the study of which it forms an admi- 
rable text book. Our design, therefore, in the present remarks, is merely to suggest a 
few thoughts which we deem important for the student to carry along with him in the 
reading of this or any other work on the subject. They are intended to be supplement- 
ary, rather than corrective— as falling in harmoniously with the general tenor of the 
work, rather than as inconsistent with it. It is ever well to carry with us what we 
have styled the moral, in distinction from the physical aspect of the old mythology ; 
and it might have added to the value of the book, had the author devoted more atten- 
tion to it throughout, or made it a separate subject of investigation. This, however, 
must have much enlarged the volume, and might have rendered it too large for the pur- 
poses intended, or too ponderous to be conveniently used as a manual in schools. 

Again : — it was her avowed design to set forth what may be properly styled the He- 
siodean Mythology, and, accordingly, she takes as her general guide or chart, the gene- 
alogies of that poet. Now this, it must be confessed, is almost wholly, if not exclu- 
sively physical. No one can read it without seeing that the Theogonia is throughout 
a poetical system of physics. The moral aspect, we have said, enters largely into 
Homer ; though greatly marred by the legendary or historically fabulous, whilst the 
physical but slightly appears.* In Hesiod., on the other hand, the latter or physical- 
element is all in all. The same may be said of those productions styled the Orphic 
Hymns, which, although doubtless forgeries, as far as their modern forms are con- 
cerned, were, in all probability, imitations derived from a much older system of poetical 
philosophy that formed one of the earliest transitions from what may be styled the per- 
sonal theology, to pantheism, or the worship of nature. In Hesiod, however, much of 
the Orphic or mystical aspect is lost, and it all comes out without disguise a mere cos- 



* It is somewhat visible in the "far darting Phabus " or Apollo, in the mythology of Iris, or 
the rainbow, and in some things said of the God of fire, and the genealogies of ths rivers ; but 
these, like certain appearances of allegory, seem to come in incidentally in Homer, and not to have 
been in any case actually designed 



f 



14 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 



mogony, instead of a true theism or even polytheism — in other words, a mere system 
of physics. The very first lines, after the formal introduction to the Theogonia, show 
.nis beyond doubt. 

"Hrot //sV 7rptoricTra Xaog ykvtr t airdp sirsira 
Va? evpvarepvos, tt&ptuv eSos aofa\ig aiel, 
'Ek Xasos 5 J "Ej9£/?oj re, n'eXaiva te ~Ni>£ lyivovro. 
Nvktos J' avr Aidfifi re Kal 'Hfxipri £%ey£vovTO.* 

They manifest the physical tendency of the poet as clearly as the more moral theology 
of Homer is exhibited in one of the introductory lines of the Iliad— 

Aids J' frfiXeifro fiovXfj — "f 

No one can mistake as to what is intended by these marriages, and births, and wars, 
and alliances, of Heaven, and Earth, and Chaos, and Night, and Day, together with 
the genealogies that follow of the clouds, and waters, and winds, and elements, and 
springs, and rivers, and seas. It is a fact, too, that the Theogonia was ever viewed in 
this light by the ancient philosophers themselves. Aristotle quotes it simply as a 
work on physics or cosmogony, and never thinks of giving it any other character. 
Plato derives from it the flowing doctrine of the Ionic Materialists, although he traces 
this also in some slight respects to Homer. Whilst, however, in the latter it only 
appears incidentally, and without apparent design, in Hesiod it forms the prevailing 
and controlling idea. In short, the Theogonia, instead of being classed with the poetry 
of Homer, would rather take its place among such works as the fragments of Emped- 
ocles, or Lucretius De Natura Rerum. 

It being, then, the avowed object of the author to set forth the Mythology of Hesiod, 
and to take his genealogical lists as a chart or guide in the structural outlines of her 
work, it may with truth be said that she has most faithfully and accurately performed 
the task she had undertaken. She has consulted and brought forward the best authori- 
ties. She has presented, in a very clear manner, the principal physical theories that 
have been worked out. by German learning and ingenuity ; and although many of these 
are doubtless fanciful and ungrounded, they nevertheless are valuable as illustrating the 
exuberant suggestiveness of the Hesiodean system. 

It only remains, in this brief introduction, to point out some of the parts of the 
ancient mythology in which moral ideas maybe rationally regarded as predominar 
notwithstanding the tendency among certain scholars to explain every thing by 



* " First of all Chaos was born ; then broad-breasted Earth, the firm seat of all things. From 
Chaos Darkness and black Night were born, and then again from Night came jEther (or the fire) 
and Day." — Hesiod, Theogonia, 117. 

t " The counsel of Jove (in all these things) was being v rought to pass." As is signified by the 
''mnerfac' ^nse. — Iliad i. 5 



I 



INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 15 



physical hypothesis. It is a very common theory, that the physical is earliest, the 
moral and theological of an after growth. A truer view, we think, reverses this — 
makes spiritual and moral ideas the more ancient, and the physical tendency, with the 
historical legendary corruptions, the result of that subsequent degeneracy from man's 
primitive state, which seems clearly taught in the Old Scriptures, and is described by 
the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans. 

This moral aspect has been greatly obscured, and yet it remains capable of being 
traced. In some parts it is so visible that it would seem difficult to mistake it. It 
may be seen, as has been already observed, in many of the epithets of Zeus employed 
by Homer and the Grecian tragic poets. It is strongly manifested in that whole 
department of mythology which has reference to the infernal deities; although upon 
this much of the physical was afterwards superinduced. It flashes out upon the moral 
sense in the wondrous fable of the avenging'Furies. It appears in the striking personi 
fications of Nemesis, of Adrasta, or the Inescapable, if we may coin a term, and of the 
ancient Themis, who is ever represented with the sword and scales and sitting at the 
right hand of the Eternal Justice in the heavens. It gleams out, amid all that tends to 
obscure it, in the universal doctrine and practice of sacrifices. It shows itself in the 
mythology of the Destinies, and in that Grecian doctrine of fate (as it is called) which 
we contend (and as we think, could prove, if time and space permitted) had far more 
of the aspect of a stern moral decree, than of a physical necessity. IS/LoTpa, as well as the 
Latin Fatum, was the positive divine allotment, the divine word, or decree, the inexor- 
able law, or Sikti, inflicting wretchedness for some act of transgression, and coming 
down with immutable and unrelenting severity from generation to generation ; as in 
some of those awfully wicked families whose descending crimes and woes form so 
fruitful a subject for the Greek tragic poets. In Homer it is the far-reaching /JouAf}, 
mentioned in the very beginning of the Iliad — the decree of Jove, made to embrace the 
whole of the war, together with a long list of subsequent events ; to which decree he is 
represented as sacrificing his individual preferences, and yielding even the tenderest 
feelings of paternal affection.* 

But to dwell on these topics would swell our introductory note beyond its prescribed 
limits. Our object has been simply to bring before the mind of the student an impor- 
tant view of the Ancient Mythology, which has been too much excluded from many 
works on the subject. If carried along in the reading and study of the volume, it will, 
it is thought, continually verify itself by calling out ideas demanding the most rational 
assent— at the same time such as might not have occurred had they not been thus sug- 



* Reference is had to the passage— Iliad xvi. 432— which is frequently quoted in support of the 
opposite visw. Jupiter is represented as debating with himself whether to rescue his son Sarpe- 
ion, about to be slain, or to yield him as a victim to destiny— irtnposiiivov aiay. Nothing, we 
think, can be clearer, than that the poet meant to represent Zeus as having the physical power to 
go against alaa or right, but his own BovM, and ulterior purposes, forbade it. 




16 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 

jested, and the system with which they are connected kept constantly before the 
mind. 

As before remarked, these thoughts are not presented as supplying a deficiency in 
iie treatise, but merely as appropriate introductory matter which could come in better 
nere than among the details and statements of the volume. 

With a sincere esteem for the author of this well-executed work, and a strong sense 
of the importance of the Ancient Mythology as a branch of universal education, the 
writer would feel highly gratified if any introductory observations he could make should 
be regarded as adding to the utility of the volume, or as promoting the object for which 
its extensive circulation would be desirable among our various schools and institutions 
erf learning. 

Tavleb Lewis. 
New York University, Sept. 6, 1848 * 




INTRODUCTION 



The word Mythology is compounded of two Greek words, Muthos, a 
fable, and Logos, a discourse ; and signifies a system of fables, or the 
fabulous history of the false gods of the heathen world. 

Mythology in general is instruction conveyed in a tale. A fable, 
or mere legend without a meaning, can with little propriety deserve 
the name. And it is not strictly confined to narrative ; signs and 
symbols are sometimes brought in play ; and again, instruction is con- 
veyed by simple ceremonies, or even by material representations. 

The first, and most simple, flows from mere metaphor, and is an 
allegory in embryo ; which extended and animated becomes a full- 
grown piece of perfect mythology. Metaphor is the produce of all 
nations, especially of the eastern. They have fiery fancies, strong pas- 
sions, and are much given to taciturnity, and therefore, seldom speak 
but in dark sayings and mystic parallels ; for metaphor is the language 
of passion, as simile is the effect of a warm imagination, which, when 
cooled and regulated, explains itself in diffuse and elaborate allegory. 

The second sort, fable, and more properly deserving the name of 
mythology, are the admirable JEsopic tales, retaining the ancient sim- 
plicity, but so exquisitely adapted to the peculiar instincts of the birds 
and beasts employed in the fables, and so justly adapted to life and 
manners, that the natural La Fontaine's, the polite La Motte's, and 
the ingenious Gray's imitations, though highly interesting, only serve 
to show the Phrygian to be inimitable. It is, in effect, the happiest 
way of conveying instruction. The mind easily perceives the moral, 
and retains it with the same ease that the memory retains, uneffaced, 
the imagery in which it was conveyed, and their joint impression is 
persuasive and lasting. 

We are indeed told, that truth, naked truth in sacred matters, is 

2 



I 



18 INTRODUCTION. 



like the sun in its brightness, which mortal eye cannot steadfastly view 
without being dazzled : but allegory, the picture or semblance of truth, 
is compared to the Iris, the reflected image of the sun, which we behold 
with wonder and gaze at with ease. u The mind," says a pious phi- 
losopher, " attaches itself with higher satisfaction to the rainbow of 
fable, than to the resplendent sun of simple truth." 

liable is divided into various kinds; and the following is an example 
of the instructive, as used for the purpose by a famous orator : When 
Philip's son, the hereditary enemy of the liberty of Greece, demanded 
eight of their leading men to be delivered up to him, as the great im- 
pediment of mutual amity, K On a time," said Demosthenes to his fel- 
low-citizens, " an embassy came from the wolves to the sheep, assuring 
them that the dogs by which they were attended were the sole occasion 
of the war ; wherefore, if they would give them up, all would be well, 
and end in lasting peace. The sheep were persuaded, gave up the 
dogs, and henceforth the wolves devoured them at pleasure." 

A second sort is political, as the following : When Jupiter heard 
of the death of his son Sarpedon, in the rage of grief he called Mer- 
cury, the messenger of the gods, and gave him orders to go instantly 
to the Fates, and bring from them the strong box in which the eternal 
decrees were laid up. Mercury obeyed, went to the sisters, and omit- 
ted nothing that a wise and well-instructed minister could say to make 
them pacify the will of Jove. The sisters smiled, and told him that 
the other end of the golden chain which secured the box with the un- 
alterable decrees, was so fixed to the throne of Jove, that were it to 
be unfastened, his master's seat itself might tremble." 

A third sort of mythology consists in a material representation of 
virtue and vice, or instruction conveyed by wood and stone, instead of 
a tale. Such in some respects are all the badges and ensigns of the 
gods, when carved or cast in metal ;— and such the secret symbols de- 
livered to the initiated in the several mysteries, which they carefully 
kept from vulgar eyes, showing them only upon certain signs. The 
example which best illustrates this material species of mythology, con- 
tains at the same time a beautiful moral : It was the temple of Honor, 
that had no entrance of its own, and the only passage to it was through 
the temple of Virtue. Happy the man who truly worships in the first, 
even if the ignorance of his contemporaries prevent him from entering 
the second ; he will yet, sooner or later, possess the station due to his 
merit. 



U 



INTRODUCTION 19 



But Mythology is a vast and various compound ; a labyrinth through 
which no one thread can conduct us ; since all the powers of heaven 
and earth, whatever is, whatever acts, whatever changes, and whatever 
remains the same, is, by some image congruent to its peculiar nature, 
Variously painted in the mimic mirror of the universe. The primary 
great gods represent its principal parts and powers ; and the numerous 
inferior train exhibit either the lesser powers of nature or their in- 
fluences ; or, they belong to human passions, and human transactions 
as connected with them. The rest are men adopted among the gods, 
and frequently blended with the original deities. 

The course of time since the commencement of the world has been 
divided into three periods ; the unknown, the fabulous, and the his- 
torical, which may be considered as the origin of mythological fables. 
The unknown comprehends all that space which the ancients supposed 
to have passed since the beginning of things, and of which we have no 
knowledge. In their opinion, all that was then transacted escaped tbe 
keenest sight. The fabulous began with the earliest notices of things ; 
that is, in ancient style, with the births and marriages of the gods, and 
continued through the heroic ages until records and history introduced 
certainty and unfabled truth. Then commenced the historical period, 
which preserves its evidence to the present time. 

Instead of this accurate division, the early poets sang, that Saturn 
(by whom they represent time) lurked long out of sight of heaven, and 
likewise devoured his own progeny as soon as they were born. This 
is plainly the unknown period, Jupiter, Saturn's son, together with 
Juno, Ceres, Pluto, Neptune, and Vesta, were produced without his 
knowledge, and preserved against his will. They conspired against 
their relentless parent, seized and bound him with a cord of wool never 
to be loosed, while almighty Jove holds the reins of government. 
Here is the fabulous period comprehending the birth and adventures 
of the gods, and the historical in the conclusion. 

Religion, law, and philosophy united, were first taught to mankind 
in the form of fables ; but these ancient fables convey no such ideas to 
the modern reader " The most ancient theology," says Plutarch, 
" both of the Greeks and barbarians, was natural philosophy involved 
in fables, that physically and mystically conveyed the truth to the 
learned ; — as appears from the poems of Orpheus, the Egyptian rites, 
and the Phrygian traditions." A remark which it is necessary to 
keep in mind, in order to distinguish the pure, primitive doctrine from 



V 



20 INTRODUCTION 



later inventions ; for the regions of fable are wide and fertile, resem 
bling Rabelais' iron work island, where swords grew from the trees, 
and mushrooms sprang from the earth so exactly under them, that 
every ripe sword fell precisely into its own scabbard, without missing 
it a hair's breadth. 

Nature is the parent of real mythology. She was associated with 
philosophy in the great work of civilizing the rude tribes of the early 
ages. Her robe of triple tissue, is a monstrous tale of feigned, alle- 
gorical personages engaged in action, who speak and act so much in 
character, as at once to represent causes and narrate transactions, which 
by striking the fancy and winning the heart, convey instruction agree- 
ably to the mind. The history of the creation, or rise of the universe, 
that the moderns call natural philosophy, and the ancients theogony, 
or the generation of the gods, was the groundwork of the fabric ; the 
powers that govern the world furnished the figures, and constitute the 
design ; while the human character (moral philosophy), the passions 
of men as they glow or languish, become tarnished or bloom with life, 
gave a gloss and coloring tothe whole. But this system of pure, prim- 
itive mythology was corrupted as soon as it spread beyond the nations 
with whom it originated, and soon became blended with history, and 
historical personages. 

One definite source of this corruption proceeded from the method 
in which the Greeks received their first ideas of gods and the worship 
that was paid to them. The Assyrians and Phoenicians were taught 
by the Egyptians ; the Greeks by the Egyptians in the first instance, 
and at second hand by the Thracians and Pelasgi ; and the Grecians 
in their turn taught the Romans. Mistakes necessarily arose in mat- 
ters so mysterious, and made still more so by the symbolical manner 
of treating them. 

Another source of corruption, was the stupidity and superstition of 
the vulgar, who often take representations for the things represented. 
This corruption was so great even before the age of Heraclitus, that in 
speaking of the ordinary worship, he exclaims against its gross abuses : 
" The common people," says he, " pray to these statues, just as one 
would talk to the walls of a house, knowing nothing who or what are 
the gods to whom they are praying." 

The perpetual changes of sublunary affairs, the catastrophes of na- 
tions, and vicissitudes of dominion, so inevitably absorb the manners, 
language, and religion of a country, that no human foresight nor reach 



INTRODUCTION 21 



of thought has yet founded an unvaried worship, or established an 
everlasting state. In vain did the Medes and Persians ordain their 
immutable statutes ; in vain did the great Zoroaster or Dodonean Jove 
forbid the barbarous mysterious terms to be changed ; in vain did the 
Egyptians or Assyrians institute significant solemn rites, or the Greeks 
and Romans appoint annual feasts, and enter into societies to perpetu- 
ate their celebration. All is obliterated or covered in oblivion. Ado- 
nis is no more lost and found in Egypt. Mylitta's temple no longer 
stands open for the ladies at Babylon ; the glorious Olympics are 
forgotten in Elis ; and the birthday of Augustus slips unheeded by, 
in spite of his temples and Flamens, or the Socii Augustales sacred to 
his memory. 

When, therefore, nothing but the rite remains, whether preserved 
by stupid practice, or barely recorded in history, and the tradition is 
lost that should explain it, the allegory loses its meaning, and becomes 
a subject of criticism and conjecture. 

There are many prevailing customs, both in sacred and civil matters, 
in regard to which there is $he same uncertainty. A rite once re- 
ceived is carefully observed, and even spreads when the reasons for its 
institution have been long forgotten or are quite unknown. A learned 
father of the Latin church has recorded a complaint of Seneca, that 
after the example of the wicked Jews (for so he calls them), the greater 
part of the world have begun to lose the seventh part of their life in 
idleness, and the neglect of their necessary business ; in which custom, 
the vanquished have given Jaw to the victors. Yet they, the Jews," 
says he, " know the cause of their own rite, while most of our people 
are doing that for which they can give no reason." 

It is certain that mythology, as it now stands, cannoi De fully un- • 
derstood without an accurate knowledge of the religious rites of the 
several nations from whom the Greeks received their gods ; because 
upon some significant ceremony, referring to the nature or traditional 
tale of the exploits of the divinity, depends the whole legend, and 
sometimes the very name of the god himself As the early Egyptian 
rites were all established by law, were all recorded, and were all typi- 
cal and symbolical, the type or symbol, by an easy transition, not only 
obscurely intimated but directly expressed the thing typified, which 
was a great source of error. But, besides the original type, any re 
markable part of the divine service, any mystical mixture as in the 
rites of Ceres, any striking posture, as in the feats of Pan, any uncouth 



22 INTRODUCTION. 



garb of the hierophant or priest, was sufficient to fix an epithet, and 
that epithet gradually grow into a name. 

Of the twelve great gods, the greatest, according to the Egyptians, 
was Pan, or the Universe, to whom the highest honors were paid. Next 
to him stood Latona or Night ; Vulcan was next in dignity ; and then 
Osiris and Isis, and Orus their son. That is, the Universe, compre- 
hending nature and all her powers, was overwhelmed in darkness until 
the igneous, vivifying spirit broke loose, and dispelled the shade that 
had for eternal ages been brooding over it ; then the sun and moon 
shone forth, parents of light, presiding over the generation of animals, 
the vegetation of plants, and the order of the whole. Instead of this, 
with the Grecian poets, Pan is the son of Mercury and Penelope ; — 
Vulcan of Jupiter and Juno ; and Latona, a lady with sable locks, 
gives birth to Apollo and Diana in Delos, or the Ortygian isle. The 
Roman poets carried their mythology still a step further from the 
original, and made it, for the most part, merely legendary : compiling 
it from the traditionary tales of the Greeks without regarding their 
relation to the subject. Their own mythology was rude and simple, 
like the age in which it rose • consisting mostly of rural deities, Fau- 
nus and Silvanus, Pales and Pomona, Janus, Tellus, and the like. 

The original gods of the greatest nations were multiplied, first by 
the knowledge of the philosophers, and then by the fictions of the 
poets ; and most of all by the avarice and ambition of the priests, and 
the superstition of the credulous vulgar, Hence arose the distinction, 
Dii majorum et minorum gentium, gods of the greater and lesser nations. 
The former were the gods worshipped by the Egyptians, Assyrians, 
Grecians, and other wise nations ; all agreed in deifying the primoge- 
nial parts of the creation ; the latter gods were adopted from obscure 
people among whom their worship had taken rise. 

These, the philosophers and wisest of the priests would not allow to 
be gods ; such as the Theban Hercules, iEsculapius, Castor and Pollux, 
because they had once been men. The others were the Cabeirim or 
mighty gods of the eastern nations ; and the Consentes, that is, the 
unanimous, or co-operating gods of the Romans, who consented to the 
deliberations of Jupiter's councils, and were universally worshipped. 
They were twelve in number, whose names Ennius has briefly ex- 
pressed in these lines : 



INTRODUCTION. 23 



Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, 
Mercurius, lovi, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo. 

Their rites and mysteries were particularly famous in the island of 
Samothrace, Lemnos, and at Eleusis in the neighborhood of Athens. 
Originally, they were but two, Heaven and the Sun, the only gods of 
the Ethiopians, from whom Egypt is said to have derived both its 
religion and learning. These were worshipped in Samothrace, and 
the Egyptians made them first six, then eight, and long afterwards 
twelve ; at which number the Dii Cabiri Dicti, ^ods called Cabirs (or 
mighty), rested in most nations ; and when these deities are explained, 
and their import examined, the nature of things (the universe) is laid 
open, rather than the nature of the gods. The powers and parts of 
the universe were therefore the ancient Cabir, or mighty gods ; and 
their mutual connections, operations, and productions .were typically 
represented in the rites and mysteries of their religious worship. 

In the contest for power, as related by the poets, Giants are brought 
in opposition to the gods ; and from this mythological fiction it may 
be inferred, that the ancients did not ascribe to their gods immense 
magnitude. With them, intellectual power always had the preference 
over physical strength ; and the monstrous beings that Oriental Fancy 
created, rose into existence only to be vanquished in their own defor- 
mity by the divine power of intellect. The beautiful propriety that 
avoids the monstrous, and assigns due limits to all the subjects repre- 
sented, is the chief feature in the fine arts of the ancients ; and not 
without reason does the Dorian imagination, in its oldest fiction, make 
the representation that shapelessness and enormity in form and limits, 
must necessarily be conquered and destroyed, before beauty and fitness 
can be established in their proper courses. 

The whole fiction of the war of the gods seems to rest on that idea. 
Uranus, or the widely expanded vault of Heaven, was not to be com- 
prehended in a single image. What Fancy had conceived was still too 
shapeless and unlimited. To Uranus, even his own children must 
become dangerous. They must rise against him, and his realm disap- 
pear in night and darkness. Even the names of the Titans indicate 
the want of bounds and limits in nature. Imagination shuns this 
boundlessness of form, which is necessarily fluctuating and uncertain — 
the modern deities conquer, and the Titans cease to reign, while their 
forms retreat as it were into mist, through whi h they are but dimly seen. 



24 INTRODUCTION. 



Still, they are regarded with veneration, for they are not brought in 
opposition to the modern gods, like pernicious beings to good and 
beneficent ones, and as such, deserving of hatred ; but power rose 
against power, and the vanquished remained great, even in his fall ; 
though the dominions of the Titans and the government of Saturn 
imply chaos and confusion, yet at the same time, liberty and equality 
were connected with them, which must cease under the rule of estab- 
lished power, and the candent bolts of thundering Jove. 

Structures for the -yorslrip of heathen deities may be considered as 
among the most ancient monuments of antiquity. As soon as a nation 
had become in the least degree civilized, they took care to appropriate 
and consecrate particular spots to the worship of their deities. 

In the earliest instances, they were contented with ertcting altars 
in the open air, either of earth or ashes, and sometimes resorted, for 
purposes of worship, to the depths of solitary woods. At length, they 
acquired the practice of building cells, or chapels, within the enclosure 
of which they placed the images of their divinities, and there assem- 
bled to offer their supplications, thanksgivings, and sacrifices. These 
places of worship bore some resemblance to their own dwellings. The 
Troglodites adored their gods in grottoes : and the people who lived 
in cabins, erected edifices, the form of which was more or less assimi- 
lated to that kind of habitation. Herodotus and Strabo contend that 
the Egyptians first erected temples to the gods ; and the first one 
erected in Greece, is attributed by Apollonius to Deucalion. Clemens 
Alexandrinus and Eusebius refer the origin of temples to the sepul- 
chres built for the dead. 

According to Pausanias. the oracle of Delphi in remote ages was 
consulted in a kind of arbor formed of laurels. That of Jupiter at 
Dodona, at a similar era, rendered its oracles by an old oak, as we 
learn both from Pausanias and Herodotus. In the vicinity of Magne- 
sia, upon the Meander, was a grotto consecrated to Apollo, wherein 
was to be seen a very ancient statue of that god. 

The first statues erected for the ancient gods hardly deserve the 
name, being only great stones set on end ; generally square, sometimes 
conical, sometimes pyramidal, or semicircular, and frequently quite 
rough, without even the touch of a tool. The oldest statues of Mercury 
were originally large square stones. The statue of the mother of the 
gods, brought from Phrygia, was a large black square stone. 



INTRODUCTION. 25 



The ancient Phoenicians had an image of the sun, which they be- 
lieved not to have been formed by human art, but to have fallen im- 
mediately from heaven. It was a large Hack stone, round and broad 
at the base, but diminishing by degrees towards the top, and terminat- 
ing in a slender point. The Megareans worshipped a large stone in 
the form of a pyramid, under the name of Apollo. Their more elegant 
neighbors, the Athenians, worshipped him in human shape, but with a 
head long and sharp, like a pyramid. A small globe split in two, and 
one of the halves set on a pole, was a symbol adored by the ancient 
Peonians.* 

When the Greeks, at a subsequent period, surpassed all other people 
in cultivating the arts, they devoted much time, care, and expense, to 
the building of temples, rendering them in every way worthy of their 
destination. In every city of Greece, as well as its environs, and in 
the open country, was a large number of sacred temples ; and the most 
costly temple of each place was especially dedicated to its tutelary 
deity. Instances of this are found in the temple of Minerva at Athens, 
that of Diana at Ephesus, of Apollo at Delphi, of Jupiter at Olympia, 
of Venus at Paphos and Cytherea ; and of Jupiter Capitolinus at 
Rome. At Panionium, was a temple of Jupiter Heliconius erected by 
the Ionian colonies, and imported into Attica from Asia Minor. The 
Dorian colonies of Asia Minor had likewise a common sanctuary, the 
temple of Apollo Triopius. Near to Mylassa was a temple sacred to 
Jupiter Carius and common to the Carians, the Lydians, and the 
Mysians. In the territory of Stratonice was the temple of Jupiter 
Chrysaoreus belonging to the Carians. In the immediate vicinity of 
these edifices, the people, at fixed seasons, held assemblies for the pur- 
pose of sacrificing to the gods ; they also celebrated their fetes on the 
same spot, and deliberated respecting the affairs of the entire nation. 



* Plutarch, in his life of Numa, says, " His regulations concerning images seem like- 
wise to have some relation to the doctrine of Pythagoras, who was of opinion that the 
First Cause was not an object of sense, nor liable to passion, but invisible, incorrupti- 
ble, and discernible only by the mind. Thus Numa forbade the Romans to represent 
the Deity in the form either of man or beast. Nor was there among them formerly any 
image or statue of the Divine Being. During the first hundred and seventy years, they 
built temples, indeed, and other sacred domes, but placed in them no figure of any kind, 
persuaded that it is impious to represent things divine by what is perishable, and that 
we can have no conception of God, but by the understanding. His sacrifices, too, re- 
sembled the Pythagorean worship ; for they were without any effusion of blood, con- 
listing chiefly of flour, libations of wine, and other very simple and unexpensive iivngs " 



26 INTRODUCTION. 



The most ancient Greek temples were very small. The cella was 
barely large enough to contain the statue of the presiding deity of the 
temple, and occasionally an altar in addition. Even in succeeding 
ages, when the riches and power, as well as the taste and skill of the 
Grecian states were augmented, they were not built on a great scale ; 
for their object did not render extent necessary, since the priests alone 
entered the cella, and the people gathered in masses outside the walls. 
Exceptions were made in those dedicated to the tutelary divinities of 
towns, of those of the supreme gods, and of those appropriated to the 
common use of various communities. But this increased extent was 
chiefly displayed in the porticoes surrounding the cella, and was again 
enlarged by the peribolos, or enclosure within a wall, which separated 
it from the adjoining ground, as a sacred place appertaining to the 
temple. This enclosure was generally adorned with a profusion of 
statues, altars, and monuments. Sometimes it contained other smaller 
temples, or even a grove. The elevation and retirement of these Sa- 
cred Enclosures, gave additional beauty, dignity, and sanctity to the 
temples contained within them. 

The Grecian temples had, for the most part, possessions of their own, 
which served to defray the expenses incurred in the service of the 
god. These possessions consisted partly in votive presents, which had 
been consecrated (especially where the divinities of health and prophecy 
were adored) by the hopes or the gratitude of the suppliants for advice 
or counsel. We know from several examples, especially from that of 
the temple of Delphi, that treasures were there accumulated, of more 
value, probably, than those of Loretto, or any other shrine in Europe. 
But as they were sacred to the gods, and did not come into circulation, 
they were for the most part unproductive treasures, possessing no other 
value than that which they received from the artist. 

We could desire more accurate information respecting the adminis- 
tration of the treasures of the temples, for it seems hardly credible 
that the great stores of unwrought gold and silver should have been 
left entirely unemployed. But besides these treasures, the temples 
drew a large part of the revenue from lands which were not unfre- 
quently consecrated to their service. When a new colony was founded, 
it was usual to devote at once a part of its territory to the gods. These 
resources were sufficient for the support of the temple, the. priests, the 
various persons employed in the service of the temples, and perhaps 
the daily sacrifices ; yet, the incense and other expenses, the celebra- 



INTRODUCTION. 27 



tion of the festivals with all the costs connected with them, still con- 
tinued a burden to the public. 

The Greeks used three kinds of altars in their mythological worship ; 
one, upon which they burned incense and made libations ; another 
served for their sanguinary sacrifices ; and the third received their 
burnt-offerings and sacred vases. Originally, they were made of heaps 
of earth, and sometimes of ashes, as that of the Olympian Jupiter, 
mentioned by Pausanias. There was also an altar of ashes at Thebes, 
consecrated to Apollo. In process of time, they were formed of brick 
and stones ; such was the material of the famous altar at Delos. They 
were at first erected in groves, in the highways, and streets, as well as 
upon the tops of mountains ; but after the introduction of temples, 
they were of course transferred to those edifices. 

The form of altars, as well as their height, was various among the 
ancients : sometimes a perfect cube, which was the most common 
among the Greeks ; at others, a parallelopipedon ; sometimes round, 
at others octangular, triangular, &o, according to the material of which 
they were formed ; and from some ancient medals we find there were 
altars of a circular form. Those which were constructed of metal, were 
generally triangular and formed like a tripod ; those constructed of 
brick or stone were mostly cubical, and some have sculptured bases 
and pedestals like candelabra. According to Pausanias, some were 
constructed of wood ; but by far the greater number that have been 
preserved to our times, are of marble. 

On solemn festivals, the ancients decorated the altars of their deities 
with leaves or the branches of trees that were sacred to them ; as those 
of Minerva with the olive ; Venus with the myrtle ; Apollo with the 
laurel ; Pan with the pine, &c. And it was from these temporary 
decorations, that the ancient sculptors drew those elegant elements of 
foliage, which embellish the altars of antiquity. On others, that 
were intended for their sanguinary oblations, and were hollowed at the 
top to receive the blood of their victims, and the offered libations, are 
found heads and sculls of animals, vases, paterse,* and other instru- 



* Patera.— A round dish, plate, or saucer. The paterae of the most common kind 
were small plates of red earthenware, on which an ornamental pattern was drawn, and 
which were sometimes entirely black. 

Numerous specimens of them may be seen in the British Museum, and in other col- 
lections of ancient fictile vases. The more valuable paterae were metallic, being chiefly 
of bronze ; but every family raised above poverty possessed one of silver, together with 



28 INTRODUCTION. 



merits ; also, vessels of sacrifice mingled with garlands of flowers, such 
as were used to bind the victims ; also, bands and other sacrificial 
accessories. When inscriptions were added, they alluded to the epoch 
of their consecration, the names of those who erected them, the motive 
of their erection, and the name of the deity to whose honor they were 
dedicated. 

Altars as well as temples were considered so sacred by the ancient 
Greeks, that most of them had the privilege of protecting malefactors 
and debtors, and even rebellious slaves who fled to them for refuge. 
Plutarch informs us, that those who killed Cylon and his followers, 
when holding by the altars, were afterwards stigmatized with the 
epithets impious and profane ; and Justin, in his history, observes, 
that the murder of Laodamia, by Milo, who had fled to the altar of 
Diana for protection, was the cause of his death, and of the public 
calamities of iEolia. In the comedy of Mostellaria, by Plautus, the 
inviolability of altars and temples appears to have existed among the 
Romans. Every temple, however, was not a sanctuary ; but only those 
which had been made so by consecration. The first asylum is gener- 
ally supposed to have been founded at Athens by the Heraclidas, but 
some writers assert that there was one previously erected at Thebes, by 
Cadmus. 

Independent of the public altars, the Greeks and Romans had pri- 
vate or domestic altars, which were dedicated to the lares and penates, 
the household gods of the ancients. 

AH the nations of antiquity were at some period of their history 

a silver salt-cellar. In opulent families there was a plate of gold. These metallic plates 
were often adorned with figures engraved or embossed upon them. A beautiful speci- 
men of a highly ornamented bronze dish, designed to be used in the worship of Mars, 
was found at Pompeii. The figures upon it represent Mercury and Apollo engaged in 
exploring the fates of Achilles and Agamemnon. 

The ornamental paterae sometimes represented leaves of fern, probably diverging 
from the centre. Gems were set in others. We read also of an amber dish having the 
countenance of Alexander the Great in the centre, and his history represented on the 
border. One in the British Museum is of white marble, and was found in the ruins of 
Hadrian's villa. It is fourteen inches in diameter, and one and three quarters high. 
It is cut with skill and delicacy, the marble not being much more than a quarter of an 
inch thick. In the centre is sculptured a female Bacchante, in a long tunic, and hold- 
ing a scarf which floats over her head. This centre piece is encircled by a wreath of ivy. 
The decorations indicate the appropriation of the plate to the worship of Bacchus. 
Plates were sometimes made so as to be used with either side downward. In these, 
both surfaces were ornamented. Plates were further distinguished by being either with 
or without a base, a boss in the middle, and having feet and handles. 



INTRODUCTION. 29 



addicted to the custom of offering sacrifices to the deities whom they 
worshipped. The origin of the practice is attributed by some to the 
Phoenicians, and by others to the Egyptians ; while Ovid imagines, 
from the import of the words victim and hostia, that no bloody sacrifices 
were offered before the prevalence of wars, when nations became vic- 
torious over their enemies. These, however, are mere hypotheses not 
borne out by historical research or tradition, and are entitled to little 
regard. 

The principal sacrifices among the Hebrews consisted of bullocks, 
sheep, and goats ; but doves and turtles were accepted from those who 
were not able to bring these animals, which were to be perfect and 
without blemish. The rites of sacrificing were various, and all are 
minutely described in the books of Moses. 

The manner of sacrificing among the Greeks and Romans was as 
follows. In the choice of a victim they took care that it was without 
blemish or imperfection, and the bull was to be one that had never 
been yoked. Having pitched upon a victim, they gilded the forehead 
and horns, especially if a bull, heifer, or cow ; the head was adorned 
with a garland of flowers, a woollen infula .* or holy fillet, from which 
hung two rows of chaplets with twisted ribbons ; on the middle of the 
body was a kind of stole, which hung down on either side ; the lesser 
victims were also adorned with garlands, and bunches of flowers, to- 
gether with white tufts, or wreaths. 

The victims thus prepared were brought before the altar, the lesser 
being driven to the place, and the greater led by a halter ; if they 
made any struggle, or refused to go, the resistance was considered an 
ill-omen, and the sacrifice frequently set aside. The victim thus 
brought, was carefully examined to see that it was without defect ; then 
the priest, clad in his sacerdotal habit, and accompanied by the sacri- 
ficers and other attendants, and being washed and purified according 
to the ceremonies prescribed, turned to the right and passed round the 
altar, sprinkling it with meal and holy water, and also sprinkling those 
who were present. The crier then proclaimed, with a loud voice, " Who 
is here ?" To which the people replied, " Many and good." The priest 



* Infula. — A flock of white and red wool, which was tightly twisted, drawn into the 
form of a wreath or fillet, and used by the Romans as an ornament on festive and 
solemn occasions. In sacrificing, it was tied with a white band to the head of the 
victim, and also of the priest, more especially in the worship of Apollo and Diana. The 

torta infula" was worn also by the vestal virgins. 



30 INTRODUCTION. 



then having exhorted the people to join with him, by saying, "Let us 
pray," confessed his own unworthiness, acknowledging that he had 
been guilty of divers sins, for which he begged pardon of the gods, and 
his hope that they would be pleased to grant his requests, accept the 
oblations offered them, and send them all health and happiness ; and 
to this general form, the priest added petitions for such particular 
favors as were then desired.. Prayers being ended, he took a cup of 
wine, and having tasted it himself, caused his assistants to do the like ; 
and then poured forth the remainder between the horns of the victim. 
The priest or the crier, and sometimes the most honorable person in the 
company, then killed the beast by knocking it down, or cutting its 
throat. If the sacrifice was in honor of the celestial gods, the throat 
was turned up towards Heaven ; but if they sacrificed to the heroes or 
infernal deities, the victim was killed with his throat towards the 
ground. If by accident the beast escaped the stroke, leaped up after 
it, or expired with pain and difficulty, it was thought to be unaccepta- 
ble to the gods. The victim being killed, the priest inspected its en- 
trails and made predictions from them. They then poured wine, 
together with frankincense, into the fire to increase the flame, and then 
laid the sacrifice on the altar, which in the primitive times was burnt 
whole to the gods, and thence called a holocaust ; but in after times, 
only part of the victim was consumed in the fire, and the remainder 
reserved for the sacrificers ; the thighs, and sometimes the entrails 
were burnt to their honor, and the company feasted upon the rest. 
During the ceremony, the priest and the person who gave the sacrifice 
jointly prayed, laying their hands upon the altar. Sometimes musical 
instruments were played during the time of sacrifice, and on some? 
occasions, the people danced around the altar singing sacred hymns it 
honor of the gods. 

The barbarous practice of human sacrifices followed that of offering 
brutes. When men had gone so far as to indulge the fancy of bribing 
their gods by sacrifice, it was natural for them to think of enhancing 
the value of so cheap an atonement by the cost and variety of the 
offering ; and when oppressed with suffering, they never rested until 
they had offered what they conceived to be the most precious of all, a 
human sacrifice. 

" It was customary" (says Sanchoniathon) " in ancient times, in great 
and public calamities, for princes and magistrates to offer the dearest 
of their offspring in sacrifice to the avenging daemons." Sanchonia- 



INTRODUCTION. 31 



thon wrote of Phoenicia. But the practice prevailed in every nation 
of which we have received any ancient account. The Egyptians were 
addicted to it in the early part of their monarchy ; and the Cretans 
likewise ? who retained it for a longer time. The nations of Arabia did- 
the same. The people of Dumah, in particular, sacrificed a child every 
year ; then burying it underneath an altar, made use of it as an idol ; 
for their religion did not admit of images. 

The Persians buried people alive. Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, is 
said to have entombed twelve persons alive for the good of her soul. 
It would be impossible to enumerate every city or province where these 
dire practices obtained. The Cyprians, the Rhodians, the Phocians, 
the Ionians, those of Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, all had human sacrifices. 
The natives of the Tauric Chersonesus offered to the goddess Diana 
every stranger whom chance threw upon their coast. Hence arose that 
just expostulation in Euripides upon the inconsistency of the pro- 
ceeding ; wherein much good reasoning is implied. Iphigenia won- 
ders, as the goddess delighted in blood, that every villain and mur- 
derer should be allowed to escape, nay, were driven from the threshold 
of the temple ; whereas, if an honest man chanced to stray thither, he 
was immediately seized and put to death. 

The Pelasgi, in times of scarcity, vowed the tenth of all that should 
be born to them for a sacrifice, in order to procure plenty. Aristome- 
nes, the Messenian, slew three hundred noble Lacedemonians, among 
whom was Theopompus the king of Sparta, at the altar of Jupiter at 
Ithome. The Lacedemonians, a severe and revengeful people, un- 
doubtedly made ample returns ; for they offered the like victims to 
Mars. Their festival of the Diamastigosis is well known ; when the 
Spartan boys were whipped in the sight of their parents, before the 
altar of Diana, with such severity that they often expired under the 
torture. 

The Romans were accustomed to like sacrifices. They not only de- 
voted themselves to the infernal gods, but they constrained others to 
submit to the same horrid doom. Hence we read in Titus Livius. that 
in the consulate of iEmilius Paulus and Terentius Varro, two Gauls, 
a man and a woman, and two Greeks were burned alive, in the ox mar- 
ket at Rome, where was a place under ground walled round to receive 
them, which had previously been used for the same cruel purpose. He 
speaks of it as a sacrifice not properly Roman : that is. not originally jf 

of Roman institution, yet it was frequently practised there by public 



32 INTRODUCTION. 



authority. Plutarch makes mention of a like instance in the consul- 
ship of Flaminius and Furius ; and there is reason to think, that all 
the principal captives who graced the triumphs of the Romans, were, at 
the close of that cruel pageantry, sacrificed at the altar of Jupiter Cap- 
itolinus. 

The Gauls and Germans were so devoted to this shocking custom, 
that no business of any moment was transacted among them without 
being prefaced by the blood of men. They were offered up to various 
gods ; but particularly to Hesus, Taranis, and Thautates. These 
deities are mentioned by Lucan, where he enumerates the various na- 
tions who followed the fortunes of Caesar. 

The altars of these gods were far removed from the common resort 
of men ; being generally situated in the depths of the woods, that the 
gloom might increase the horror of the scene, as well as to give a rev- 
erence to the place and proceeding. The devoted victims were led 
thither by the Druids who presided at the solemnity, and performed 
the cruel offices of the sacrifice. Tacitus notices the Hermunduri, in 
a war with the Catti, wherein they had greatly the advantage, at the 
close of which they made one general sacrifice of all that were taken 
in battle. The poor remains of the legions under Varrus suffered in 
some degree the same fate. 

There were many places appropriated to this purpose all over Gaul 
and Germany ; but especially in the mighty woods of Arduenna, and 
the great Hercynian fores fc ; a wild that extended above thirty days' 
journey in length. Tie places set apart for this solemnity were held 
in the utmost reverence, and only approached at particular seasons. 
Lucan mentions a grove of this sort near Massilia, which even the Ro- 
man soldiers were afraid to violate, though commanded by Caesar. It 
was one of those set apart for the sacrifices of the country. 

These practices prevailed among all the people of the north, of what- 
ever denomination. The Massagetag, the Scythians, the Getes, the 
Sarmatians, all the various nations upon the Baltic, particularly the 
Suevi and Scandinavians, held it as an established principle, that their 
happiness and security could be obtained only at the expense of the 
lives of others. Their chief gods were Thor and Woden, who they 
thought could never be sufficiently glutted with blood. They had 
many celebrated places of worship, especially in the island of Rugen, 
near the mouth of the Oder, and in Zealand ; some, too, were very 
famous among the Semnones and Naharvalli. But the one most fre- 



INTRODUCTION. 33 



quonted, and held in greatest reverence, was at Upsal ; where was held 
every year a grand celebration which continued for nine successive days. 
During this time they sacrificed animals of all sorts ; but human vic- 
tims were the most numerous and considered the most acceptable. 

RELIGION OP ANCIENT GREECE (Heeren). 

As the Greeks received most, if not all of their gods from abroad, 
they of course received them as symbols of natural objects and powers ; 
and the further we look back into the Grecian theogony, the more 
clearly do their gods appear as such beings. He who reads with toler- 
able attention the early systems as set forth in Hesiod, cannot mistake 
this for a moment, nor can it be denied, that there are traces of it in 
the gods of Homer. That his Jupiter designates the pure ether, his 
Juno the atmosphere, his Apollo the sun, is obvious in many of his 
narrations. But it is equally obvious, that his prevailing notion is not 
the ancient symbolical one, but that his Jupiter is already the ruler of 
the gods and men ; his Juno, the queen of Olympus. 

This, then, is the essential peculiarity of the popular religion of the 
Greeks ; they gradually dismissed the symbolical representations, and 
not only dismissed them, but adopted something more human and 
more sublime in their stead. The gods of the Greeks were moral pei 
sons. 

When we call them moral persons, we do not mean to say that a 
higher degree of moral purity was attributed to them than humanity 
can attain (indeed, the reverse is well enough known) ; but rather, 
that the whole nature of man, with its defects and its excellences, was 
considered as belonging to them, with the additional notions of superior 
physical force, a more delicately organized system, and a more exalted, 
if not always a more beautiful form. Now these ideas became generally 
prevalent, and were entertained by the whole people ; and thus an in- 
destructible wall of division was raised between the Grecian and foreign 
gods. The former were moral beings ; this was their leading charac- 
ter ; they would have been mere names if this had been taken from 
them ; but the gods of the barbarians remained only personifications 
of certain objects and powers of nature ; and hence neither a moral 
nature nor character belonged to them, although the human shape and 
certain actions and powers were attributed to them. 

Having illustrated the essential difference between the Grecian and 
foreign gods, and shown in what the transformation of the foreign 

3 



34 INTRODUCTION. 

gods, adopted by the Greeks, consisted, the question arises, how and by 
what means did that transformation take place 1 

By means of poetry and the arts. Poetry was the creating power ; 
the arts confirmed the representations which she had called into being 
by investing them with visible forms. And here we come to the im- 
portant step, from which we must proceed in continuing our inquiry. 

"Whence each of the gods is descended, whether they have always 
existed," says the father of history, " and what were their shapes, all 
this the Greeks have but recently known. Hesiod and Homer, whom 
I do not esteem more than four hundred years older than myself, are 
the poets who invented for the Grecians their theogony ; gave the 
gods their titles; fixed their rank and occupations; and described 
their forms. The poets who are said to have lived before these, lived, 
as I believe, after them." 

This remarkable account deserves a careful attention The historian 
expressly remarks that this is his own hypothesis, not the belief of 
others. He may certainly have been mistaken ; but he would hardly 
express himself so explicitly, unless he had believed himself warranted 
to do so. We must receive his opinion as the result of such an inves- 
tigation as could in his age be carried on ; and can we do more than he? 

He names Homer and Hesiod ; and naturally understands by them 
the authors of the poems which already bore their names : the two 
great epic poems of Homer, and at last the theogony of Hesiod. The 
case does not become changed, even if those productions are, agreeably 
to a modern opinion, the works of several authors. It would only be 
necessary to say that it was the ancient epic poets of the schools of 
Homer and of Hesiod, who invented the gods of the Greeks ; and per- 
haps this manner of expression is the more correct; for it would be 
difficult to doubt that the successors of those poets contributed their 
share. 

According to Herodotus, these poets were the first to designate the 
forms of the gods ; that is, they attributed to them not merely the 
human figure, but the human figure in a particular shape. They dis- 
tinguished, moreover, their kindred, their descent, their occupations ; 
they also fixed the personal relations of each individual ; and therefore 
gave them the epithets which expressed these attributes. But if we 
collect these observations into one, they signify nothing less than that 
the poets were the authors of the popular religion, in so far as it was 
grounded on definite representations of the several divinities. 



INTRODUCTION. 35 



This is not intended to imply that Homer made it his object to be 
the creator of a national religion. He only made a poetical use of the 
previous popular belief. But that poetical spirit, which left nothing 
indistinctly delineated in the heroes whose deeds he celebrated, bring- 
ing before our eyes their persons and their characters, effects the same 
with the gods. He no more invented his divine personages, than he 
did his heroes ; but he gave their character to the one and the other. 
The circle of his gods is limited to a small number. They are inhabit- 
ants of Olympus, and if they do not all belong to the same family, 
they yet belong to the same place; and they usually live together, at 
least when that is required by the purposes of the poet. Under such 
circumstances, an inferior poet might have felt the necessity of giving 
them individuality. And how much more a Homer 1 But that he 
executed in so perfect a manner, is to be ascribed to the superiority of 
his genius. 

Thus the popular notions entertained of the gods were first estab- 
lished by Homer, and established never to be changed. His poems 
continued to live in the mouths of his nation ; and how could it have 
been possible to efface images which were painted with such strokes 
and colors ? Hesiod is, indeed, named with him ; but what are his 
catalogues of names compared with the living forms of Homer ? 

In this manner, by means of the epic poets, that is, almost exclu- 
sively by Homer, the gods of the Greeks were raised to the rank of 
moral beings possessed of definite characters. As such, they gained 
life in the conceptions of the people ; and however much may have 
been invented respecting them in the poetry of a later age, no one was 
permitted to represent them under a figure, or with attributes differ- 
ent from those which were consistent with the popular belief. "We 
soon perceive the various consequences which this must have had on 
the civilization and improvement of the nation. 

The more a nation conceives its gods to be like men, the nearer does 
it approach them, and the more intimately does it live with them. 
According to the earliest views of the Greeks, the gods often wandered 
amongst them, shared in their business, requited with good or ill in 
conformity to their recent reception, and especially to the number of 
gifts and sacrifices with which they were honored. In this manner 
those views decided the character of religious worship, which received 
from them not merely its forms, but also its life and meaning. How 
could this worship have received any other than a cheerful, friendly 



56 INTRODUCTION. 



character ? The gods were gratified with the same pleasures as mor- 
tals ; their delights were the same ; the gifts which were offered them 
were the same which please men ; there was a common, a correspond- 
ent enjoyment. With such conceptions, it was natural that their holi- 
days should have been joyous. And as their joy was expressed by 
dance and song, both of these necessarily became constituent parts of 
their religious festivals. 

It is another question : What influence must such a religion have 
on the morals of a nation ? The gods were not represented as pure 
moral beings, but as swayed by human passions, and liable to human 
infirmities. At the same time, the Greeks never entertained the idea 
that their divinities were to be held up as models of virtue ; and hence 
the injury done to morality by such a religion, however warmly the 
philosophers afterwards spoke against it, could hardly have been so 
great as we with our prepossessions should at first imagine. If it was 
not declared a duty to become like the gods, no excuse for the imita- 
tion could be drawn from the faults and crimes attributed to them. 
Besides, these stories were esteemed, even by the vulgar, only as poet- 
ical fictions ; and they felt little concern about their truth, or want of 
credibility. There existed, independent of those tales, the fear of the 
gods as higher beings, who, on the whole, desired excellence, and ab- 
horred and sometimes punished crime. This punishment was inflicted 
in this world ; for the poets and the people of Greece for a long time 
believed that there was no punishment beyond the grave, except for 
those who had been guilty of direct blasphemy against the gods. Their 
system of morals was on the whole deduced from the fear of the gods ; 
that fear also produced the observance of certain duties which were of 
great practical importance ; as for example, the inviolable character of 
guppliants, who stood under the peculiar protection of the gods ; the 
sanctity of oaths and the like ; of which the violation was also consid- 
ered as a crime against the gods. Thus the popular religion of the 
Greeks was undoubtedly a support of morality, though not to the same 
degree as in Christian countries. But that its importance was felt as 
a means of bridling the licentiousness of the people, is sufficiently clear 
from the care which the state took during its better days to preserve 
the popular religion, and from the punishments inflicted on those who 
aorrupted it or denied its gods. 

If, however, the influence of popular religion in the moral character 
of the Greeks should be differently estimated, there is no less room for 



INTRODUCTION. 37 



doubt as to its influence on taste ; for that was formed entirely by the 
popular religion, and continued indissolubly united to it. 

By the transformation of the Grecian deities into moral agents, a 
boundless field was opened for poetical invention. By becoming hu 
man. the gods became peculiarly fitted for poetry. The muse of the 
moderns has attempted to represent the Supreme Being in action, which 
she could only do by investing him as far as possible with human attri- 
butes. The failure of this attempt is well known : it was vain to en 
deavor to deceive us with respect to the chasm which lay between oui 
more sublime ideas of the Divinity, and the image under whieh he i* 
represented. But the case was altogether different in ancient Greece 
The poet was not only allowed, but compelled to introduce the gods ic 
a manner consistent with popular belief, if he would not fail of producing 
the desired effect. The great characteristics of human nature were ex 
pressed in them ; they were exhibited as so many different archetypes. 
The poet might relate of them whatever he pleased ; but he never was 
permitted to alter the original characters, whether he celebrated their 
own actions or introduced them as participating in the exploits of mor- 
tals. Although themselves immortal, they always preserved the human 
character, and excited a corresponding interest ; with their weaknesses 
and faults they stood nearer to man than if they had been represented 
as possessing the perfection of moral excellence. 

Thus the popular religion of the Greeks was essentially poetical. 
There is no need of a long argument to show that it also decided the 
character of Grecian art, by affording an inexhaustible supply of sub- 
jects. 

On this point a single remark will suflice. Among the nations of 
the east, the plastic art not only never created forms of ideal beauty, 
but was rather exercised in producing hideous ones. The monstrous 
figures of their gods, which we have already mentioned, are proofs of 
it. The Grecian artist was secure against any thing similar to this, 
when their gods had become not merely physical, but human, moral 
beings. He never could have thought of representing a Jupiter or 
Juno with ten arms ; he would have destroyed his own work by offend- 
ing the religious popular notions. Hence he was forced to remain true 
to the pure human figure, and was thus brought very near the step 
which was to raise him still higher and give ideal beauty to his images. 
That step he would probably have taken without assistance ; but the 
previous labors of the poets made it more natural and more easy 



•38 INTRODUCTION. 



Phidias found in Homer the idea of his Olympian Jupiter ; and the 
most sublime image in human shape which time has spared to us, the 
Apollo of the Vatican, may be traced to the same origin. 

Besides the popular religion, Greece possessed also a religion of the 
initiated, preserved in the mysteries. Whatever we may think of 
these institutions, and whatever idea we may form of them, no one can 
doubt that they were of a religious nature. They must then have 
necessarily stood in a certain relation to the religion of a people ; but 
we shall not be able to explain, with any degree of probability, the 
nature of that relation, until we trace them to their origin. 

We must preface this inquiry with a general remark. All the mys- 
teries of the Greeks, as far as we are acquainted with them, were intro- 
duced from abroad ; and we can still point out the origin of most of 
them. Ceres had long wandered over the earth before she was received 
at Eleusis, and erected there her sanctuary. Her secret rites at the 
Thesmophoria, according to the account of Herodotus, were first intro- 
duced by Danaiis, who brought them from Egypt to the Peloponnesus. 
Whether the rites of Orpheus and Bacchus originally belonged to the 
Thracians or the Egyptians, they certainly came from abroad. Those 
of the Curetes and the Dactyli originated in Crete. 

It has often been said, that these institutions suffered in process of 
time many and great alterations ; that they commonly degenerated : 
or, to speak more correctly, that the Grecians accommodated them to 
themselves. It was not possible for them to preserve among the Greeks 
the same character which they had among other nations. And here 
we are induced to ask : What were they originally ? How were they 
introduced and preserved in Greece 1 And in what relation did they 
stand to the popular religion ? 

The answer to these questions is contained in the remarks which we 
have already made on the transformation and appropriation of foreign 
gods by the Greeks. Most of those gods, if not all of them, were 
received as symbolical, physical beings ; the poets made of them moral 
agents ; and as such they appear in the religion of the people. 

The symbolical meaning would have been lost if no means had been 
provided to ensure its preservation. The mysteries, it seems, afforded 
such means. Their great end, therefore, was, to preserve the know- 
ledge of the peculiar attributes of those divinities which had been in- 
corporated into the popular religion under new forms ; what powers 
and objects of nature they represented ; how these, and how the uni- 



INTRODUCTION. 39 



verse came into being ; in a word, cosmogonies, like that contained in 
the Orphic doctrines. But this knowledge, though it was preserved 
by oral instruction, was perpetuated no less by symbolical representa 
tions and usages ; which, at least in part, consisted of those sacred 
traditions and fables of which we have already made mention. " In 
the temple of Sais," says Herodotus, "representations are given by 
night of the adventures of the goddess ; and these are called by the 
Egyptians, mysteries ; of which, however, I will relate no more. It 
was from thence that these mysteries were introduced into Greece." 
Admitting this even to be the chief design of the mysteries, it does not 
follow that it was the only one. Indeed, it is very probable that, in 
the progress of time, great variety of representations may have arisen 
in the mysteries ; their original meaning might perhaps be gradually 
and entirely lost, and another be introduced in its stead. 

Those passages may therefore be very easily explained, which import 
that the mysteries, as has been particularly asserted of those of Eleu- 
sis, exhibited the superiority of civilized over savage life, and gave 
instructions respecting a future life and its nature. For what was this 
more than an interpretation of the sacred traditions which were told 
of the goddess, as the instructress in agriculture, of the forced descent 
of her daughter to the lower world, &c. And we need not be more 
astonished, if in some of their sacred rites we perceive an excitement 
carried to the borders of that enthusiastic frenzy, which belonged 
indeed peculiarly to the east, but which the Greeks were not unwilling 
to adopt. For we must not omit to bear in mind that they shared the 
spirit of the east, living as they did on the boundary line between the 
east and west. As those institutions were propagated further to the 
west they lost their original character. We know what the Bacchana- 
lian rites became at Borne ; and had they been introduced north of the 
Alps, what form would they have there assumed? To those countries 
it was indeed possible to transplant the vine, but not the service of 
the god to whom the vine was sacred. The orgies of Bacchus were 
equally unsuited to the cold soil and inclement forests of the north,, 
and to the character of its inhabitants. 

The secret doctrines which were taught in the mysteries, may have 
degenerated into mere forms and an unmeaning ritual. And yet the 
mysteries exercised a great influence on the spirit of the nation, not 
of the initiated only, but also of the great mass of the people ; and 
perhaps they influenced the latter still more than the former. They 



40 INTRODUCTION. 

preserved the reverence for sacred things, and this gave them their 
political importance. They produced that effect better than any mod- 
ern secret societies have been able to do. The mysteries had their 
secrets, but not every thing connected with them was secret. They 
had, like those of Eleusis, their public festivals, processions, and pil- 
grimages, in which none but the initiated took a part, but of which no 
one was prohibited from being a spectator. Whilst the multitude 
were permitted to gaze at them, they learned to believe that something 
sublimer than any thing which they knew was revealed to the initiated ; 
and while the value of that sublimer knowledge did not consist in 
secresy alone, it did not lose any of its value by being concealed. 

Thus, the popular religion and the secret doctrines, although always 
distinguished from each other, united in serving to curb the people. 
The condition and the influence of religion on a nation are always 
closely connected with the situation of those persons who are particu- 
larly appointed for the service of the gods, the priests. The regula- 
tions of the Greeks concerning them deserve the more attention, since 
many unimportant subjects of Grecian antiquities have been treated 
with an almost disproportionate expense of industry and erudition . 
but with respect to the priesthood of the nation, we are as yet left 
without an investigation corresponding to the importance of the sub- 
ject. The very abundance of matter renders it the more difficult, for 
very little can be expressed in general terms, and many dangers were 
brought about by time. 

During the heroic age, we learn from Homer, that there were priests 
who seem to have devoted themselves exclusively to that vocation. 
We readily call to mind Calchas, Chryses, and others. But even in 
that age such priests appear but seldom ; and it does not appear that 
their influence over the rest of the people was considerable. The 
sacred rites in honor of the gods were not performed by them alone ; 
they were not even required at the public solemnities. The generals 
and commanders themselves offer their sacrifices, perform the "prayers, 
and observe the signs which indicated the result of an enterprise. In 
a word, kings and generals were at the same time priests. 

Traces of these very ancient regulations were preserved for a long 
time among the Greeks. The second archon at Athens, who presided 
at the public ceremonies of worship, was called the king, because he 
had to prepare the sacred rites, which were formerly regulated by the 
kings. He had his assistants : and it was necessary for his wife to be 



INTRODUCTION. 41 



of irreproachable character, as she also had secret religious services to 
perform. He was, however, like the other archons, annually appointed, 
and the election was by lot. The priests and priestesses of the several 
divinities were for the most part chosen by vote. But the priestesses 
could be married, and the priests seem by no means to have been 
excluded by their station from participating in the offices and occupa- 
tions of the citizens. There were some sacerdotal offices which were 
hereditary in certain families. But the number of them seems to have 
been inconsiderable. In Athens, the Eumolpidae possessed the privi- 
lege that the hierophant, or first director of the Eleusinian rites, as well 
as the other three, should be taken from his family. But the place of 
hierophant could not be obtained except by a person of advanced 
years ; and those other offices were probably not occupied during life, 
but frequently assigned anew. How far the same was true in other 
cases is but seldom related. At Delphi, the first of the Greek oracles, 
the Pythian priestess was chosen from among the women of the city, 
and was cut off from all intercourse with men. It is hardly probable, 
from the violent exertions connected with the delivery of the oracles, 
that the same person could long fill the place. Here, as elsewhere, 
people were appointed for the service without the temple, and were 
even educated within its limits. But the service within the temple 
was performed by the most considerable citizens of Delphi, who were 
chosen by lot. The sanctuary of Dodona, where the responses of the 
oracle were made, as at Delphi and in other temples, by priestesses, 
seems to have belonged to the family of the Selli, of which Homer 
makes mention ; but we have no particular accounts respecting the 
family. 

The regulations respecting priests proposed by Plato in his laws, 
show most clearly, that the ideas of the Greeks required that the 
offices of priests should not long be filled by the same persons. " Let 
the election of the priests," says he, u be committed to the god, by 
referring the appointment to lot ; those on whom the lot falls must 
submit to an examination. . But each priesthood shall be filled for one 
year, and no longer, by the same person ; he who fills it may not be 
less than sixty years old. The same rules shall apply to the priest- 



We infer from all this, that though the regulations respecting the 
priesthood were not the same in all parts of Greece, that office was 
commonly filled for a limited time only ; was regarded as a place of 



42 INTRODUCTION. 



honor (to which, as to the other mysteries, appointments were made by 
lot after an examination) ; and was subjected to the same rotation with 
the rest. They to whom it was intrusted were taken from the class of 
active citizens, to which they again returned : and even whilst they 
were priests, they were by no means withdrawn from the regular busi- 
ness of civil life. The priesthood did not gain even that degree of 
consistency which it had at Rome ; where the priests, though they 
were not separated from secular pursuits, formed separate colleges, 
like those of the pontiffs and augurs, and the members of them were 
chosen for life. Since the priesthood then, among the Greeks in gen- 
eral, and in the several states, never formed a distinct order, it could 
not possess the spirit of a party, and it was quite impossible for any 
thing like priestcraft to prevail. Religion and public acts of worship 
were so far considered inviolable, that they were protected by the 
State ; and thus a degree of intolerance was produced which led even 
to injustice and cruelty. But we do not find that the priests were 
peculiarly active in such cases. It was the people which believed 
itself injured ; or a political party, or individual demagogues, who had 
some particular object in view. 

As the priests of the G-reeks formed no distinct class in society, it 
is evident that they could have no such secret system of instructions 
as was possessed by those of Egypt. No such system can therefore be 
contrasted with the popular religion ; instead of it, there were the 
mysteries ; but the initiated were not all of them priests, nor was it 
necessary for every priest to be initiated into the mysteries. Any per- 
son could be admitted to them whose condition in life and behavior 
were found to deserve the distinction. 

These regulations led to important consequences. There was in the 
nation no separate class which claimed an exclusive right to certain 
branches of scientific and intellectual education, and preserved that 
exclusive right by means of written characters, intelligible only to 
themselves. That which ought to be the common property, and is the 
noblest common property of mankind, was such among the Greeks. 
And hence the spirit of philosophy was enabled to develop itself with 
freedom. The most ancient philosophy of the G-reeks, as it appeared 
at first in the Ionic school, perhaps originally stood in close union with 
religion, and may indeed have proceeded from it ; for who does not 
perceive the close connection between speculations on the elements of 
things, and the ancient conceptions of the gods as powers or objects 



INTRODUCTION. 43 



of nature ? But religion could not long hold philosophy in fetters. It 
could not prevent the spirit of free inquiry from awakening and gain- 
ing strength ; and thus it was possible for all sciences which are pro- 
moted by that spirit to assume among the Greeks a decided and pecu- 
liar character. In the intellectual culture of the east, all scientific 
knowledge was connected with religion ; but as these were kept sepa- 
rate by the Greeks, science gained among them that independent 
character which distinguishes the west, and which was communicated 
to the nations of whom the Greeks were the instructors. 

As in Greece the priests never formed a distinct order, and still less 
a caste, religion never was united to the state to the same extent as in 
other countries. It was sometimes subservient to public policy, but 
never became its slave. The dry, prosaic religion of the Romans could 
be used or abused to such purposes ; but that of the Greeks was much 
too poetical. The former seems to have existed only for the sake of 
the state : and the latter, even when it was useful to the state, appears 
to have rendered none but voluntary services. The patricians con- 
fined the popular religion of Rome within the strict limits of a system ; 
but in Greece religion preserved its freedom of character. 



44 



TABLE OF THEOGONY. 



TABLE OF HESIOD'S THEOGONY. 


From Chaos. 


Sleep, 


Earth, 


Dreams, 


Love, 


Momus, 


Erebus, 


Care. 


Night-. 


The Hesperides. 


From Erebus and Night. 


Clotho, } 


Sunshine or the Sky, 


Lachesis, > Fates 


Day. 


Atropos, j 




Nemesis, 


From Earth. 


Fraud, 


Heaven, 
Hills, 


Loose Love, 
Old Age, 


Groves, 


Strife. 


Sea. 


From Strife. 


From Heaven and Earth. 


Affliction, 


Ocean, 


Oblivion, 


Coeus, 
Hyperion, 
Japetus, 
Rhea, 


Famine, 
Sorrows, 
Combats, 
Murders, 


Themis, 


Wars, 


Mnemosyne, 
Phoebe, 


Slaughters, 
Deceits, 


Tethys, 
Saturn, 


Quarrels, 
Lies, 


Brontes, 1 


License, 


Steropes, > Cyclops. 


Perverted Law, 

Injury, 

Perjury. 


Arges, ) 
Cottus, } 


Gyges, > Giants. 
Briareus, ) 


From Sea and Earth. 


Themis. 


Nereus, 




Thaumas, 


From Heaven. 


Phorcys, 


Giants, 


Cete, 


Furies, 


Eurybia. 


Wood Nymphs. 


From Nereus and Dti 


From Night. 


Nereids, 


Destiny, 


Proto, 


Fate, 


Eucrate, 


Death, 


Lao, 



TABLE OF THEOGONY. 



45 



Amphitrite, 

Eudore, 

Thetis, 

Glauce, 

Cymothoe, 

Spio, 

Thalia, 

Melite, 

Eulimine, 

Agave, 

Pasithea, 

Erato, 

Eunice, 

Doro, 

Proto, 

Pherusa, 

Dunaniene, 

Nisaca, 

Actea, 

Protomedia, 

Doris, 

Panope, 

Galataea, 

Hippothoe, 

Hipponoe 

Gymodoce, 

Cymatologe, 

Cumo, 

Heione, 

Halimea, 

Glauconome, 

Pontoposea, 

Liagore, 

Evagore, 

Laomedia, 

Polynome, 

Autonoe, 

Lysianassa, 

Evarne, 

Psamathe, 

Menippe, 

Neso, 

Eupompe, 

Themisto, 

Pronoe, 

Nemertes. 



From Thaumas and Electra, 

Iris, 

Aello, 

Ocypete, 



The Harpies 



From Phorcys and Ceto. 

Stheno, } 
Euryale, > Gorgons. 
Medusa, ) 

The Serpent Guard of the Golden 
Fruit. 
Chrysaor, 
Echidna. 

From Chrysaor and Callirrhoe. 

Geryon, 
Echidna. 

From Typhcms and Echidna, 

Orthrus, 
Cerberus, 
Hydra, 
Chimsera. 

From Orthrus and Chimcera, 

Sphinx, 
Nemaean Lion. 

From Ocean and Tethys. 
(Sons.) 
Nile, 
Alpheus, 
Eridanus, 
Strymon, 
Meander, 
Ister, 
Phasis, 
Rhesias, 
Achelous, 
Nessus, 
Rhodius, 



16 



TABLE OF THEOGONY. 



Haliacmon, 


Europa, 


Granicus, 


Calypso, 


Simois, 


Amphiro, 


iEsapus, 


Eudora, 


Hermus, 


Asia, 


Sangarius, 


Tyche, 


Pereus, 


Ocyroe, 


Caicus, 


Styx, 


Ladon, 


Oceanides. 


Parthenius, 




Evenus, 


From Hyperion and Thea. 


Ardescus, 


Sun, 


Seaman der. 


Moon, 


{Daughters.) 


Aurora. 


Naiads, 
Admete. 


From Crius and Eurybia, 


Pitho, 


Astraeus, 


Doris, 


Pallas, 


Ianthe, 


Perses. 


Urania, 




7 

Clymene, 


From Astraeus and Aurora. 


Prymno, 


West, } 


Electra, 


North, > Winds. 


Calliroe, 


South, ) 


Rhodia, 


Lucifer, 


Hippo, 


Stars. 


Pasithoe, 




Plexaure, 


From Pallas and Styx. 


Clytie, 


Zeal, 


Melobosis, 


Victory, 


Idya, 


Strength, 


Thoe, 


Force. 


Xeuxo, 




Galaxaure, 


From Cozus and Styx. 


Dione, 
Circeis, 


Latona, 
Asteria. 


Polydore, 




Ploto, 

Perseis, 

Innira, 


From Perses and Asteria. 
Hecate. 


Acaste, 
Xanthe, 


From Saturn and Rhea. 


Petreia, 


Vesta, 


Telestho, 


Ceres. 


Metis, 


Juno, 


Eurynome, 


Pluto, 


Crisie, 


Neptune, 


Menestho, 


Jupiter. 



TABLE OF THEOGONY. 



47 



From Japetus and Clymene. 


From Neptune and Amphitrite. 


Atlas, 


Triton, 


Menoetius, 


Fear, 


Prometheus, 


Harmonia. 


Epimetheus. 


From Jove and Maia. 


Made by Vulcan and all the Gods. 


Hermes. 


Pandora. 


From Jove and Semele. 


From. Tartarus and Earth. 


Bacchus. 


Typhosus, 


From Jove and Alcmena. 


From Typhosus. 


Hercules. 


Pernicious Winds. 


From the Sun and Perses. 


From Jove and Themis. 


Circe, 


Eunomie, } 


JEtes. 


Dice, > Hours. 




Irene. \ 


From JEtis and Idya. 




Medea. 


From Jove and Eurynome. 




Aglaia, } 


From Jason and Ceres. 


Euphrosyne, > Graces. 


Plutus. 


Tnalia, } 


From Cadmus and Harmonia. 


From Jove and Ceres. 


Ino, 


Proserpina. 


Senele, 


From Jove and Mnemosyne. 


Agave, 
Autonoe, 


THE MUSES. 

Clio, 


Polydore. 


Melpomene, 


From Tithonus and Aurora. 


Euterpe, 


Hemathion, 


Terpsichore 

Erato, 

Thalia, 


Memnon. 


From Jason and Medea, 


Polymnia, 


Medeus. 


Urania, 


From Eacus and Psamathe. 


Calliope. 


Phocus. 


From Jove and Latona. 


From Peleus and Thetis. 


Apollo, 


Achilles. 


Artemis. 




From Jove and Juno. 
Lucina, 


From Anchises and Venus, 
iEneas. 


Mars, 


From Ulysses and Circe. 


Hebe. 


Agrius, 


From Jove. 


Latinus. 


Minerva. 


From Ulysses and Calypso. 


From Juno. 


Nausithous, 


Vulcan. 


Nausinous. 



PART FIRST. 
ANCIENT DEITIES, 



ANCIENT DEITIES. 



CHAOS. 

Chaos (void space), a heterogeneous mass, containing all the seeds 
of nature, was first, according to Hesiod ; then came into being the 
broad-breasted Earth, the gloomy Tartarus, and Love. 

The idea of Chaos and Night, divested of poetical imagery, is simply 
that of unformed matter, eternally existing as the passive principle 
whence all forms are produced. Whether, besides this Chaotic mass. 
the ancients supposed an infinite, active, intelligent Principle, who 
from the first matter formed the universe, is a question which has 
occasioned much debate. 

It is evident from the most cursory review of all the ancient theog- 
onies, that God, the great Creator of all things, is not expressly intro 
duced.; but it is doubted whether the framers of these theogonies 
meant to exclude him from their respective systems, or indirectly to 
suppose His existence, and the exertion of His power in giving motion 
to matter. When divested of allegory and poetry, the sum of the 
doctrine contained in the ancient theogonies, will, it is conceived, be 
as follows : — The first matter, containing the seeds of all future beings, 
existed with God. At length, the divine energy acting upon matter, 
produced a motion among its parts, by which those of the same kind 
were brought together, and those of a different kind were separated 
and by which, according to certain wise laws, the various forms of the 
material world were produced. 

The same energy of emanation gave existence to animals and men 
as well as the gods who inhabit the heavenly bodies and various other 
parts. Among men, those who possess a larger portion of divine nature 
than others, are hereby impelled to great and beneficent actions, and 
afford illustrious proofs of their divine original, on account of which, 



52 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

they were, after death, raised to a place among the gods, and became 
objects of religious worship. 

From Chaos were produced Earth, Love, Erebus, Night, and the 
Universe. 

TERRA OR EARTH. 

Earth was one of the most ancient oracles and deities in mythology. 
She produced the mountains, the sea, and the heavens. 

Eros, or Love, was probably understood by the ancients to be that 
attractive principle in nature, by which homogeneous bodies are united ; 
and to this principle, they poetically ascribe the attributes of reason 
and wisdom, to intimate, that in the formation of the world, all things 
were constituted by harmonious laws. 

According to some mythologists, Love is of all gods the most ancient, 
and is said to have existed before all generations, and first incited 
Chaos to bring forth darkness, out of which sprang Ether and Day — 
and also, that his union with Chaos gave birth to men, the animals 
which inhabit the earth, and that even the gods themselves were the 
offspring of Love, before the foundation of the world. 

Among the ancients, Love was worshipped with great solemnity, and 
as his influence was supposed to extend over the dead as well as the 
living, his divinity was universally acknowledged, and vows, prayers, 
and sacrifices, were offered to him. 

Erebus, properly speaking, is the abode of Night ; in conjunction 
with which he produced Day. This is the commencement of mytho- 
logical fictions ;— the opposite extremes of things are brought together ; — 
from shapelessness and deformity arise form and beauty, and light is 
made to spring out of darkness. 

Ancient mythologists and poets say, that the various parts ot which 
the wondrous world consists, would have lain for ever in the abyss of 
being, if the breath of the tremendous Erebus, the spirit that dwells 
in eternal darkness, had not gone forth and put the mass in vital agita- 
tion. Then, the congenial parts began to sever from their heterogene- 
ous associates, and mingle together. Matter appeared, and inseparable 
from it, attraction ; different degrees of powers, and all active principles 
of nature continued and increased. 

Order, Figurability, Succession, and Retention, were passive in the 
genial contest ; but Intention and Aptitude mildly interfered, and 
begot Providence (or c oresight), who, being joined with his bride, Meas 



NOX OR NIGHT. 



53 



are (or perfection), the daughter of Contemplation, presided over the 
forming world, called to light the vegetable and animal race, and 
then crowned his wondrous work with the formation of man. 

NOX OR NIGHT. 

Night covers and conceals, andjfor this reason she is made the mother 
of the horrible, as well as the charming. 

From uncreated Night. Daylight arose, by which all formations are 
developed, and all creatures enjoy life. She is likewise, according to 
some, the mother of the inexorable Parcae, of the avenging Nemesis, 
who punishes hidden crime ; of the Furies, who torment the wicked ; 
of Charon, the Ferry-man of Hell ; and of the twin brothers, Sleep and 
Death. 

Night is also the mother of Dreams ; of the Hesperides, who guard 
the golden apples ; — of Deceit, enveloping himself in darkness ; — of 
malicious censure ; — of fretting grief; — of trouble and hunger; — of 
destructive war ; — of duplicity of speech ; — and finally, of perjury. 
Among the children of night are comprised all those things which she 
conceals ; or which Fancy, herself would fain cover with nocturnal 
darkness. In night, there is something of which even the gods stood 
in awe : for Homer says, " When Jupiter was angry at the god of sleep, 
Night covered him with her veil, and the thunderer restrained his 
wrath, fearing to offend swift Night." — (II. xiv. 256.) 

The nightly, mysterious darkness, in which something hidden exer- 
cises superior power and influence over gods and men, was not clear to 
the conception of the ancient poets. They understood not the supreme, 
over-ruling power, before which all other powers vanish ; but believed 
in the hidden rule and authority that were apparent in the many mis- 
eries which mingled with the happiness of mortals. And as danger, 
fear, and mystery, have their attractions, as well as light, peace, and 
security, they delighted in the representations of dreadful events and 
wasting destruction, allowing their imaginations to stray far away into 
the dominion of night and the world of shadows. 

Night was considered among the ancients as one of their oldest 
divinities, and was worshipped by them with great solemnity, In the 
temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was a famous statue of her, to whom, as 
the mother of the Furies, black sheep were offered in sacrifice ; and 
also a cock, as that bird proclaims the approach of Day during the 
darkness of Night 



64 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

On antique gems we find Night represented in a female figure of 
youthful beauty ; either holding in her arms two handsome boys, Death 
holding an extinguished torch in his hand, and Sleep with the stem of 
a poppy ; or sitting beneath a shady tree, distributing poppies to Mor- 
pheus and his brothers. Morpheus, the son of sleep and the god of 
dreams, stands before her in youthful beauty, receiving the poppy from 
her hands, while bis brothers are behind her, bent to the ground gath- 
ering the falling leaves. 

It appears from these representations, poetical, as well as plastic, how 
carefully the ancients endeavored to transform gloom and terror into 
soothing images. And, on the other hand, what a high conception of 
tragical subjects, considering the night born, inevitable Fate, as the 
power that rules over gods and men, and whose old dominion and con- 
cealed futuie, lie far beyond the penetration of human knowledge and 
foresight. 

PAN. 

Various origins have been given to Pan (or the Universe), one of 
which io, that he sprang from Chaos ; that is to say, Chaos contained 
the seeds of all things. 

Among the most learned of the ancients, Pan was considered as one 
of the oldest divinities ; and, according to the Egyptians, and the most 
learned of the Grecian sages, he had neither father nor mother, but 
sprang from Demogorgon (the genius of the earth) at the same instant 
with the fatal Parcse. A beautiful way of saying that the universe 
derived its origin from a power unknown to them, and was formed 
according to the unalterable relations, and eternal aptitude of things, 
as were the Fates, daughters of Necessity. 

The figure of Pan represents the universe, and is a delineation of 
nature and the rough face which it first wore, while his spotted robe of 
a leopard's skin represents the starry heavens. His person is a com- 
pound of various and opposite parts, rational and irrational, a man and 
a goat ; so is the world : — an all-governing mind and heterogeneous, 
prolific elements pervade and constitute it. 

Pan's symbol of the pipes is most eloquently expressive of nature's 
divine, harmonious constitution, and of the order and measure that 
govern all her works, producing that solemn movement called the 
music of the spheres ; imperceptible indeed to our material organ, but 
so delightful and pleasing to the ear of the mind. This wondrous reed 



PAN. 



65 




on which he incessantly plays, is composed of seven pipes, unequal 
among themselves, but fitted together in such just proportion as to 
produce the most unerring and melodious notes, calling forth the echo, 
which poets have made the object of his love. 

The worship and the different functions of Pan, were derived from 
the mythology of the Egyptians. This deity was one of the eight 
great gods that they worshipped, ranking before the other gods, which 
the Romans called Consentes. They regarded him as the emblem of 
fecundity, and the principle of all things ; therefore the Greeks gave 
him the appellation of Pan. He was worshipped with great solemnity 
at Mendes. 

By the Arcadians he was venerated as the chief of the rural deities. 
Herdsmen and shepherds are said to have dreaded the sight of Pan, 
yet they regarded him as the tutelary deity of themselves, and of their 
flocks and herds, and brought him frequent offerings of milk and 
honey. Sacrifices were offered to him in a deep cave in the midst of 
a wood. The Athenians had a statue of him like that of Mars, and in 



56 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

some antique gems and sculptures his figure is nearly as formidable as 
that of the Medusa. 

The worship of Pan seems to have been confined to Arcadia till the 
time of the battle of Marathon, when Phiedipodde, the Athenian 
courier, who was sent from Athens to Sparta, whither he went to im- 
plore aid against the Persians, was accosted, as he said, by the Arca- 
dian deity Pan, who desired him, on his arrival at home, to assure the 
Athenians of his good will towards them, and of his regret that his 
favorable disposition had not been acknowledged by them with due 
honor and gratitude, and of his intention to be present and assist them 
in the great conflict in which they were about to engage. This prom- 
ise having been duly fulfilled by the pastoral deity, obtained for him a 
shrine in the grotto consecrated to his honor at the north-west corner 
of the Athenian Acropolis. 

Pan is unnoticed both by Homer and Hesiod, but in one of the 
Homerids his occupations are thus described : " He is lord of the hills 
and dales : sometimes he ranges along the tops of mountains, some- 
times pursues the game in the valleys, roams through the woods, floats 
along the streams, or drives his sheep into a cave, and there plays on 
his reeds, music not to be excelled by the bird, who among the leaves 
of flower -full spring laments, pouring forth her moan, a sweet sounding 
lay." 

" And with him the clear singing mountain nymphs 
Move quick their feet, by the dark-water'd spring 
In the soft mead ; where crocus, hyacinth, 
Fragrant and blooming, mingle with the grass, 
Confused ; and sing, while echo peals around 
The mountain's top." 

The god meanwhile moves his feet rapidly as he joins in the danco ; 
with the skin of a lynx on his back, and delighted with the sweet 
song. 

In after times. Pan's protection was supposed to extend beyond the 
herds, and we find him regarded as the guardian of bees, and the 
giver of success in fishing and fowling. 

On the southern slope of Hymettus, a little above the village of 
Bari, is a subterranean grotto or natural temple dedicated to Pan and 
the pastoral nymphs. "We descend a few steps hewn in the rock, and 
enter the cave which is lighted from the narrow adit: it is hung with 
stalactites, and bends itself so as to form two apartments, the one 



PAN. 57 

nearly parallel to the other. In ancient days the pipes and reeds of 
shepherds were suspended as votive offerings on its rocky walls; 
basins of stone and cups of wood carved with figures and flowers, were 
here dedicated to the deities of the place ; here images of the nymphs 
stood in their small niches ; hither, the first flowers of their gardens, 
the first ripe ears of their harvests, the first grapes of their vineyards, 
the first apples of their orchards, were brought as oblations by the 
shepherds and peasants of Attica. And now, at this day, there remain 
visible traces of their devotion, as well as memorials of the person who 
dedicated this grotto to the worship of their rural deities. Engraved 
on the rock, at the entrance, is an inscription in verse, which announ- 
ces that Archedemus, a native of Phserae, in Thessaly, formed this cave 
by the counsel of the nymphs : other records of the same kind inform 
us, that it was sacred to the Graces, to Apollo, and to Pan. Two 
verses, inscribed on a slab of marble, speak of a garden planted here 
in honor of the nymphs. In another part of the cave is a figure of 
Archedemus himself, rudely sculptured on the rock, dressed in his 
shepherd's coat, and with a hammer and chisel in his hands, cutting 
the sides of the cave. 

Plato, in early youth, was led by his parents to a grotto on mount 
Hymettus, that he might present an offering to Pan, the nymphs, and 
the pastoral Apollo, to whom it was dedicated. There is good reason 
to believe that this cave, which, as the above inscriptions on its walls 
assure us, was consecrated to those very deities, has been trodden by 
the feet of the great philosopher of Athens, and that his eye has rested 
upon the same objects that we now see in this simple pastoral temple, 
which has sustained but little injury from the lapse of years, while 
the magnificent fanes of the Athenian capital have crumbled to decay. 

At Rome, there was a yearly festival celebrated in honor of Luper- 
cus, or the Grecian Pan, with whom he was identified. This celebra- 
tion took place on the 15th of February, and was called Lupercalia. 
The priests who officiated, and who were dedicated to the service of 
Pan, were called Luperci. This order of priests was the most ancient 
and respectable of all the sacerdotal offices. It was divided into twc 
separate colleges, called Fabiani and Quintiliani, from Fabius and 
Quintilius, two of the high priests. The former were instituted in 
honor of Romulus, and the latter of Remus, 

A goat was sacrificed to Pan, to which a dog was added, because as 
god of shepherds he protected the sheepfold from the devouring wolf. 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



The priests touched with a bloody knife the foreheads of two illustri 
ous youths, who were obliged to smile during the ceremony ; the blood 
was then wiped off with a bit of wool dipped in milk. After this, the 
skins of the victims were cut into thongs, with whuh whips were made 
for the youths, who ran about the streets, using them freely on all 
whom they met. Plutarch says, " The Lupercalia would seem to be a 
feast of lustration, from its occurring on one of the inauspicious days 
of the month of February, which name denotes it to be the month of 
purifying. The day was formerly called Februaita. But the true 
meaning of the Lupercalia is the feast of wolves. And it seems for 
that reason very ancient, as having been received from the Arcadians, 
who came over with Evander. This is the general opinion. But the 
term may be derived from Lupa, a she-wolf: for we see the Luperci 
begin their course from the place where they say Romulus was 
exposed. 

" Butas, who in his elegies has given a fabulous account of the origin 
of the Roman institutions, writes, that when Romulus had overcome 
Amulius, in the transports of victory, he ran with great speed to the 
place where the wolf suckled him and his brother when infants ; and 
that this feast is celebrated and the young noblemen run in imitation 
of that action ; and the touching of the forehead with a bloody knife 
is a symbol of the slaughter and danger, as the wiping off the blood 
with milk is in memory of their first nourishment. But Caius Acilius 
relates, that before the building of Rome, Romulus and Remus having 
lost their cattle, first prayed to Faunus for success in the search of 
them, and then ran out naked to seek them ; therefore the Luperci ran 
about in the same manner. If this was a feast of lustration, we may 
suppose that the dog was sacrificed in order to be used in purifying * 
for the Greeks in their purifications made use of dogs. But if these 
rites are observed in gratitude to the wolf that nourished and pre- 
served Romulus, it is with propriety they kill a dog, because it is an 
enemy to wolves." 

According to Baronius, Pope Grelasius abolished the Lupercalia in 
the year 469 of the Christian era. 

Like Pan, Lupercus, or Faunus, as he was also called, was multiplied, 
therefore we meet with abundant mention of Fauns. 

The Syrinx, or Pan's pipes, is generally placed in the hand of Fauns 
and Satyrs, but is sometimes also the accompaniment of rustics. It is 
frequently found figured upon ancient monuments. Upon the Sarcoph- 



PAN. 59 

agus* of Tyrania, preserved in the museum at Aries, is depicted a 
Syrinx in a case or box. It is occasionally found on the earlier 
Christian monuments as an emblem of our holy faith ; the founder of 
Christianity having been regarded as the shepherd of his spiritual 
flock, and the Syrinx being the common musical instrument of the 
husbandman or shepherd. 



* Sarcophagus is a sort of coffin or grave itself. This kind of sepulchral chest among 
;he ancients was made of stone, marble, or porphyry. The Greeks also used hard wood, 
which was calculated to resist humidity. Occasionally terra cotta, and even metal. 

The form of these sarcophagi was ordinarily a long square, like our coffin. Some- 
times the angles were rounded, giving it an elliptical shape. It was not usual for these 
funeral chests to narrow downwards, as, for instance, the species of bathing-tub called 
labrum. The lid of the sarcophagus varies also both in shape and ornament. Some- 
times it bears the statue of the person inhumed therein, often in the posture assumed 
by the ancients as they took their meals. The size of the sarcophagi was also various. 
Those of the primitive Christians, destined to enclose several corpses, had often two 
several sets of basi relicvi. 

The workmanship on the sarcophagi of the ancients was frequently of a very high 
order. The figures sculptured or engraved thereon, are either those of the parties con- 
nected immediately with the history of the deceased, or the heroic, half fabulous per- 
sonages of mythology. Achilles detected by Ulysses among the daughters of Lycome- 
des; Orestes, the parricide, pursued by the Furies; the combats of the Centaurs and 
Lapiths ; these and others are very often treated on these monuments. Sometimes 
the young warrior is characterized by some hero of antiquity ; and the sarcophagus 
represents the condemnation of Hyppolitos by his father Theseus ; the death of Phae- 
thon, who could not escape his evil destiny ; the death of Patroclos, announced to 
Achilles by Autilochus ; that of Hector, announced by bis father, etc., etc. 

The ancients were fond of denominating death a sleep. With them Sleep and Death 
are brothers, and are often placed on the sides of a sarcophagus. Often, also, by an in- 
genious allegory, the artist represented the eternal sleep of the pale inhabitants of the 
sarcophagus by some celebrated mythological slumber; such, for instance, as the sleep 
of Endymion. 

Again, the figures on the sarcophagi were moral or allegorical. The twelve labors of 
Hercules, so often found upon the tombs of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
present an ingenious allegory of the triumph of virtue over the passions. The various 
seasons, frequently found depicted upon them, are emblematical of the several ages of 
man. Occasionally, the peculiar taste or profession of the deceased is indicated, as in 
the three basi relievi, wherein the figure of a young poet is introduced, encircled by the 
Muses. In fact, these ancient monuments present almost every variety of decoration ; 
in some instances bearing an obvious relation to the person entombed ; in others, to 
subjects of a general, a political, or a religious character. 

Certain sarcophagi contained merely an urn, enclosing the ashes of the deceased. 
This is the case with that regarded as having been appropriated to Alexander Severua, 
wherein was found the beautiful glass urn, called the " Portland Vase." 



tfO 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 




PAROUS OR FATES. 

" There are three Fates, three single sisters, wh ■) 
Rejoicing in their wind-outspreading wings, 
Their heads with flour snow'd over white and new, 

Sit in a vale, round which Parnassus flings 
Its circling skirts." 



The Parcse were daughters of Night, or an invisible, overruling 
power. According to some, the daughters of Necessity, or the neces- 
sary- connection of things — by which is meant the Creator's eternal 
and immovable essence, to which the fable of her daughters, and their 
fatal spindle plainly points. 

This necessary connection of things, or necessity itself, called by 
the Greeks Moira and Heimarmene, and by the Komans Fatum, was 
that mysterious power, which, with invisible sceptre, ruled over gods 
and men . The inexorable Parcse were the attendants of this unknown 
being, and presided chiefly over the life and fate of mortal men. 

They were three in number, according to the triple division of time 
into past, present, and future. Their ever-running thread is partly 
spun and wound up, partly just drawn out and twisting, and partly as 
yet on the distaff. Clothe holds the distaff, and is ever furnishing the 



PARCjE or fates. 61 



present ; Lachesis (allotment) spinning the thread of life, lays out the 
future ; and Atropos (irreversion) with the fatal scissors cuts it off, 
severing the past ; so that the grand transaction of time is not badly 
represented in the fable. But as Plato has nobly said, " All this is 
nothing but God himself, who, according to the ancient tradition, hav- 
ing the beginning, middle, and end of all things in his power, keeps 
one straight, steady course according to nature, with his inseparable 
adherent, Justice, who is ever ready to avenge the least deviation from 
his divine law." 

Although the Parcae signify that terrific power which governs as it 
were from the dark, whose decrees are passed as soon as conceived, 
and against which there is no resistance, yet, they are represented as 
beautiful females, spinning, and joining at the same time in the song 
of the Sirens. In high and unlimited power, all things are easily 
accomplished ; and the resistance even of the mighty finds in this 
height its termination. To prescribe bounds to all revolutions, only 
the slightest touch of the fingers is requisite, and to manage the mys- 
terious course of events is made the easiest work of a female hand. 
This beautiful representation of the thread of life, delicately spun and 
easily severed, cannot be equalled by any other. The thread does not 
break, but is cut off; and the cause of this lies in a superior power, 
which has already firmly and irrevocably disposed of what gods and 
men still strive to accomplish in their own way. 

Ancient representations of the Parcae by the hand of art are seldom 
found. Upon the gems which antiquity has left us, Lachesis, who 
spins the thread of life, and is sometimes called the handsome daughter 
of Necessity, is represented in youthful beauty, seated, and spinning, 
having one distaff before and another behind her, and at her feet lie a 
comic and tragic mask. These masks are among the happiest allusions 
to human life, if we behold it with all its serious and comic scenes. 
Unaffected by either, she cannot be diverted from her purpose ; but, 
during their course, the tender and delicate finger of the goddess never 
ceases to turn the fatal thread. 

Another gem shows Lachesis leaning against a pillar in a quiet pos- 
ture, carelessly holding a distaff in her left hand, and playing as it 
were with the thread of destiny. This quiet attitude in which the 
sublime goddess of destiny looks down upon the far extended designs 
of men, is an extremely beautiful idea of the ancient artist. For while 
gods exert all their power, and mortals all their strength to bring their 



6*2 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

plans and views to bear, this goddess, smiling, playfully holds the 
thread on which depend the limits of all things, even the proudest 
projects of gods and men. 

In vain, for instance, does Jupiter endeavor to preserve the life oi 
his son, Sarpedon, in the battle of Troy, against the will of Fate. 
" Wo 's me," he exclaims, u that my son, Sarpedon, must fall under 
the hand of Patroclos, according to the doom of Fate." And although 
he would gladly rescue his son, yet his power must yield before that 
of the inexorable goddess. Nothing is left to his own will, but to 
deliver the body to his messengers, Death and sweet Sleep, who carry 
it to his native land, where the friends and relatives may weep over 
it. (II. xvi. 434.) 

In the same manner Ulysses was doomed by destiny to wander ten 
years over foreign seas and countries, and at last to reach home with- 
out his companions. And in the history of his wanderings it may be 
seen, that where circumstances appear to afford the greatest pleasure 3 
happiness, and security, there the greatest dangers lie concealed. As. 
for instance, in. the quiet harbor of the Lestrigons, on occasion of the 
song of the Sirens, and in that of Circe's magic cup. 

It is the history of human life in general. However near at hand 
Ulysses beholds the accomplishment of his wishes, all recedes ; his 
tears and fervent prayers are in vain, until it is the will of Destiny 
that he shall again find his home, and he reaches his native island — 
sleeping. 

The worship of the Parcae was well established in some cities in 
Greece, and though mankind were convinced that they were inexora- 
ble, and that it was impossible to mitigate their will, yet they wished 
to show a proper homage to their divine power by raising to them 
temples and statues. They received the same worship as the Furies, 
and their votaries yearly sacrificed to them black sheep ; during whicn 
ceremony the priests were obliged to wear garlands and flowers. 

NEMESIS. 

Nemesis, like the Parcse, was the daughter of Night. Her office 
was to baffle pride and haughtiness, and to punish secret vice. She 
-presided over the distribution of retributive justice, and her vengeance. 
if once provoked, was sure to fall on the offender at last, however long 
delayed. In this fable is plainly seen the idea of retrbutive justice 



NEMESIS. 



which, though slow in its course, never fails, sooner or later, to overtake 
the wicked, who must inevitably suffer the consequences of their own 
wrong-doing. As a personification of the moral reverence for law, of 
the natural fear of committing a guilty action, and hence of conscience, 
she is mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony in connection with Shame. 

Having belonged with the original deities, those mysterious beings 
who were regarded with awe and veneration by gods as well as men, 
she is allowed the same rank among the modern heathen deities, and 
was particularly worshipped at Rhamnus in Attica, where she had a 
celebrated statue made by Phidias — or as others say, by one of his 
pupils. 

The Greeks celebrated a festival in memory of their deceased friends, 
called Nemesia, — as the goddess Nemesis was supposed to preserve 
the memory and relics of the dead from insult. 

The Romans, also, were particularly attentive to the worship of 
Nemesis, whom they solemnly invoked, and to whom they offered 
sacrifices before declaring war against their enemies, to prove to the 
world that they did not act without the most just occasion. Her statue 
at Rome was in the Capitol. 

In a solitary scene in Attica, near the channel of Euripus, at about 
half a mile from the sea, and three hundred feet above it, is a rectan- 
gular terrace, of which two sides, namely, those on the north and east, 
are faced with massive blocks of white Pentelic marble, fitted to each 
other with the nicest symmetry. The earthen wall is one hundred and 
fifty feet in length ; it rises eight feet above the soil below it, which 
slopes gently to the sea. 

This terrace was a sacred enclosure. On it two temples formerly 
stood ; they belonged to the city of Rhamnus, which lay below them 
on a circular knoll upon the sea-shore. The direction in which they 
were placed was from north to south ; the remains of both are con- 
siderable. 

Whether they ever existed contemporaneously in a perfect state, is 
a matter of much uncertainty. Had this been the case, the buildings 5 
as is clear from their actual foundations, would have been almost con- 
tiguous without being parallel to each other, and would thus have 
presented a very irregular and unsymmetrical appearance, for which 
there is no reason, on account of the ample dimensions of the area 
around them. 

Of these two fabrics, that to the west was a single cella built in a%ti$ % 



64 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

as it is called ; th'at is, with but one portico, and that formed by the 
two columns, placed between two pilasters, in which the walls of the 
cella terminate. This temple was only thirty-five feet long, and twenty- 
one broad ; it was constructed of polygonal masses of marble ; of the 
four walls which formed the cella some portions are still standing. 
The entrance to the temple was on the south ; on each side of it, under 
the portico supported by two columns and antae above mentioned, was 
a marble throne, each having an inscription on the plinth, from which 
it appears that the chair on the right hand of the door was dedicated 
to Nemesis, and that on the left to Themis. Within the temple was 
a marble statue of very ancient workmanship, which represented the 
goddess to whom the temple was dedicated. 

Adjacent to this temple, on the east, stood a second building, of the 
same kind, but of a much more magnificent style, and larger dimen- 
sions. It was a peripteral hexastyle ; that is, it was surrounded on all 
sides by columns, having six on either end ; namely, at the pronaos or 
front, on the south, and at the posticum, or hinder porch on the north ; 
there were twelve columns on each flank ; in both the temples these 
were of the Doric order. This latter temple measured seventy-five feet 
in length, and thirty-seven in breadth. Within it some fragments of 
a ^solossal statue are still visible. 

From the testimonies of ancient authors, especially Pausanias, and 
from the fact that the town of Rhamnus, to which these temples be- 
longed, was under the special patronage of the goddess Nemesis, and 
also from the language of an ancient inscription, still extant in the 
larger temple, which speaks of an honorary statue of a young Athenian 
there dedicated to her, it is clear that this latter building was conse- 
crated to that deity. This large and splendid building was, we say, 
the temple of Nemesis. 

The smaller fabric first noticed has generally been supposed to have 
been the temple of Themis ; but there is no ground for this opinion 
except the circumstance that one of the marble chairs, noticed above 
as standing in its vestibule, is inscribed to her ; but it should be ob 
served, that the chair on the left of the entrance is dedicated to Themis, 
while that on the right was sacred to Nemesis. In addition to this, 
since the awkward position of the buildings with respect to each other 
suggests the belief that they never both existed in a state of integrity 
at the same time, and as it is just to conclude that the patron goddeso 
of Rhamnus was never without a temple in this place, from the time 



NEMESIS. 65 



when the place itself was first dedicated to her, we are inclined to 
believe that the older and smaller temple was also consecrated to the 
same goddess. 

It appears then probable, that when this building fell into decay, — 
whether from lapse of time, or as is more likely from hostile violence, — 
and when the inhabitants of Rhamnus had advanced both in wealth 
and architectural skill, that then they thought fit to erect another 
temple of a more magnificent and spacious kind in honor of their own 
deity, while their respect for antiquity and their veneration for the 
consecrated building, in which she had been worshipped by their fore- 
fathers, caused them to retain, in its actual state, the smaller and 
simpler fabric which stood by its side. 

The ruins of this ancient temple, if it had been laid waste by human 
force, were, perhaps, preserved in their dismantled condition, for a par- 
ticular purpose, by the inhabitants of Rhamnus ; for they were of ser- 
vice on the one hand, as stimulating their indignation and courage 
against those who had thus treated them ; and, on the other, as con- 
juring Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, by a silent and perpetual 
prayer, that she would aid them in repelling and chastising those ene- 
mies who had thus violated her dignity and profaned her worship. 

It is impossible to contemplate the ruins of these temples and the 
peculiar features of their site, without being impressed with a deep 
feeling of admiration for the spirit and intelligence which set apart 
this spot for purposes of religious devotion. Let us imagine this scene 
as it existed in former days. Then these buildings were standing — 
the larger of them, at least, in its full beauty — on an enclosed terrace, 
supported by long and high walls of pure marble. This was their 
pedestal. They were surrounded by a sacred grove of green and fra- 
grant shrubs, among which were statues and altars. 

One of these two buildings reminded the spectator of the simplicity 
of earlier days by its chaste and severe style ; the other charmed him 
by the size and beauty of its structure, by its long lines of columns, its 
lofty pediments, the richness of its sculptural decorations, and by the 
brilliancy of the coloring with which they were adorned. Beneath 
them, at some distance, was the sea : on its shore was the city of Rham- 
nus, one of the strongest and most important fortresses of Attica, to 
which these temples belonged. The town stood on a peninsular knoll 
it was surrounded with lofty walls of massive stone, and was entered on 
the west by a gate flanked with towers ; on the southern side was its port 

5 



66 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

From contemplating the picture which these latter objects suggest 
to the imagination — from ideal visions of the military or naval prepa- 
rations which the town of Rhamnus, now lying in ruins before us, was 
wont to witness in early days — from sights such as it then presented, 
of seamen hastening down to its port, and invited to embark there by 
a favorable gale ; or of Athenian merchants unlading their ships, and 
transporting their freight to warehouses on the quay ; or of travellers 
entering the gate of the city, or issuing from it — we turn again to a 
more quiet scene — to the view of these beautiful temples, standing 
above on their lofty platform amid the silence and shadows of their 
consecrated grove. 

However mistaken its object, we cannot bear to condemn, nay, rather, 
we cannot but fervently approve and admire, the temper of that devo- 
tion which raised these two buildings — one of grave simplicity, the 
other of sumptuous splendor — in such a scene as this. We reverence 
the feeling which removed them from the turmoil of the city, seques- 
tered them by a local consecration from all buildings devoted to traffic 
and to toil, and placed them in this tranquil spot, which invited the 
worshipper to come here from the stir of the streets below, and to 
taste the pleasure and enjoy the fruits, if not of devotion, at least of 
meditation and repose ; we venerate the principle — a principle not of 
Paganism, but one of a purer spirit, speaking in a pagan age — which, 
in the dignified structure, and in the hallowed and peaceful precincts 
of these temples at Rhamnus, seems to have conceived and realized the 
idea of what we may be allowed to call an architectural sabbath, such 
as a heathen could enjoy and no Christian can despise. 

THE ERINNYES OR FURIES. 

The Erinnyes were originally a personification of the curses pro- 
nounced upon a guilty criminal. In this sense the word Erinnys is 
often used in the Homeric poems ; and the poet, conceiving them as' 
distinct beings, considered them as among the inhabitants of Erebus, 
whence they were called to life and activity, when some curse is pro- 
nounced upon the guilty. 

The crimes which they are represented as punishing, are, disobe- 
dience to parents, violation of the respect due to old age, violation of 
the laws of hospitality, and improper conduct towards suppliants. As 
ministers of the vengeance of the gods, they were stern and inexorable, 



THE ERINNYES OR FURIES. 



6? 




Upon earth they were employed to inflict venge- 
ance by wars ; pestilences, and dissensions, and 
by the secret stings of conscience ; and in hell 
they punished the guilty by continual flagella- 
tions and torments. Gradually they assumed 
the character of goddesses who punished crime 
after death, and seldom appeared on earth. 

Neither Homer nor the Greek tragedians de- 
signate the Erinnyes by any particular names ; 
but the later poets make them three in num- 
ber, viz. : Tisiphone, the avenger of murder; 
Megsera, the wrathful ; and Alecto, the restless ; 
and so great was the awe in which men stood of 
these inexorable sisters, that they scarcely ven- 
tured to mention their names, or fix their eyes on 
the temples dedicated to the Furies. They had 
a temple in Achaia, which no one guilty of crime 

could enter without being suddenly deprived of reason and made furi 
ous ; and whoever was conscious of having secretly perpetrated an un 
lawful action, endeavored to propitiate the Furies by prayers and of 
ferings. 

Their temple at Athens was near the Areiopagos, and few even of 
the superior deities received so much homage as the three avenging 
sisters ; and their priests formed a tribunal before which no one dared 
to appear, until he had sworn upon the altar of the Eumenides to tell 
nothing but the truth. 

Their worship was almost universal ; and in their sacrifices the 
votaries used branches of cedar and of alder, hawthorn, saffron, and 
juniper. The victims were generally turtle doves and black sheep, 
with libations of wine and honey. 

They were represented with snakes around their heads instead of 
hair, and wearing funereal robes fastened with girdles formed of snakes 
and scorpions. With one hand they grasp, a dagger with whips of 
serpents and scorpions : in the other is held a flaming torch ; and thus 
they are represented as pursuing the perpetrators of crime and wicked- 
ness. The Grecian artists, however, frequently represented the Furies 
as young and beautiful : sometimes with, and sometimes without ser- 
pents around their heads. 

On a vase of terra cotta, from the Porcinari cabinet at Naples, rep 



OS GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

resented in the second volume of Sir William Hamilton's vases, they 
are painted as young females, with bare arms, and having snakes twined 
round their heads. In their hands they held torches. On another 
vase, Orestes appears with his hands tied behind him, while below the 
altar on which he is placed, is a black winged Fury, with snakes in her 
hair, and others curling round her arms. Even here, however, the 
expression is far from terrific. Different bas-relievos of the Romans, 
representing the same subject, characterize these avenging deities by 
the same attributes of youth and beauty. 

The Furies were also called Eumenides ; but the term Eumenides, 
that is, the kindly disposed goddesses, is applied to them by a euphe* 
mism, or antiphrasis. 

Helicon was consecrated to the Muses ; but Cithaeron was the moun- 
tain of the Erinnyes, and rang with the frantic yells of the wildest 
nocturnal orgies of Bacchanalian revelry. The aspect of Cithaeron is 
the reverse of that of Helicon ; it is savage, cold, gloomy, and inhos- 
pitable. All the mythological traditions connected with it, partake of 
the physical sternness which characterizes the mountain itself. The 
dark forests of pine trees and silver firs which crown the precipitous 
cliffs, and the caves which are hollowed in their craggy sides, were, 
according to the songs of Greek poets, the witnesses of inhuman and 
sanguinary deeds. Here Pentheus, the Theban king, was pursued by 
the infuriate troop of women, led on by his mother and sisters, and 
torn in pieces by their hands. Here Actaeon, the son of Aristaeus, and 
Autonoe, the daughter of Cadmus, having on a sultry day, when he 
was hunting, ascended from the Gargraphian fount in the plain below, 
where Diana, when bathing, was seen by him, was mangled by his own 
dogs, which were set upon him by that goddess. Here, the luckless 
(Edipus was exposed by order of his father. Here a little more than 
a mile to the south of the loftiest summit of the mountain, which is 
upwards of four thousand feet in height, and overhangs the site of the 
ancient Plataea, was the altar of the Cithaeronian Jupiter, to which the 
fourteen cities composing the Boeotian Confederacy brought, at the 
feast of Daedalia, every sixty years, fourteen statues of oak, and burned 
them upon an altar of wood, upon the summit of the mountain. Here 
is a grotto formerly dedicated to the Sphragitian Nymphs who inspired 
men with the frenzy known to the Greeks of old, by the name of 
Nympholepsy. The whole mountain was identified with the wildest 
and most painful passions which distract the human heart. It was 



THE HESPERIDES. 



dedicated to tragedy, while the mountain on the western side of the 
valley was sacred to the genius of pastoral poetry. Cithaeron and Hel- 
icon were, if we may use the comparison, the mount Ebal and the 
mount (xerizim of Greek geography. 

THE HESPERIDES. 

The Hesperides are called daughters of Night, that is to say their 
origin and existence are veiled in darkness. Their names were iEgle, 
Erytheia, and Arethusa ; — and they were appointed to guard the 
golden apples, which were the gift of Earth to Juno on her wedding 
day. 

The celebrated gardens of the Hesperides abounded with fruits of the 
most delicious kinds, and were carefully guarded by a dreadful dragon, 
which never slept. By Hesiod, these gardens were placed beyond the 
Atlantic Ocean in the dusky horizon of the west, where they rested 
upon the shoulders of Atlas. By geographical writers they are placed 
near the ancient Berenice, now Bengazi in Cyrenaica on the Mediter- 
ranean coast of Africa. 

A modern traveller, Captain Beechy, has given us some curious in- 
formation upon this point. He remarks, that some very singular pits 
or chasms of natural formation were discovered by him in the neigh- 
borhood of Bengazi. 

" They consist of a level surface of excellent soil several hundred 
feet in extent, enclosed within steep and for the most part perpendicu- 
lar sides of solid rock, rising sometimes to a height of sixty or seventy 
feet or more before they reach the level of the plain in which they are 
situated. The soil at the bottom of these chasms appears to have been 
washed down from the plain above by the heavy rains, and is frequently 
cultivated by the Arabs : so that a person walking over the country 
where they exist, comes suddenly upon a beautiful orchard or garden 
blooming in secret, and in the greatest luxuriance, and a considerable 
depth beneath his feet, and defended on all sides by walls of solid rock, 
so as to be at first sight apparently inaccessible. 

' ; The effect of these secluded spots, protected as it were from the 
intrusion of mankind by the steepness and depth of the barriers which 
enclose them, is singular and pleasing in the extreme ; they reminded 
us of some of those secluded retreats of which we read in fairy tales 
and legends. It was impossible to walk along the edge of these preci- 



70 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

pices looking every where for some part less abrupt than the rest by 
which we might descend into the gardens beneath, without calling to 
mind the description given by Syclax, of the far-famed gardens of the 
Hesperides." 

It has been supposed by many, and among the rest by Gosselin and 
Pacho, that the Hesperian gardens of the ancients were nothing more 
than some of those verdant caves which stud the Libyan desert, and 
which from their concealed and inaccessible position, their unknown 
origin, and their striking contrast to the surrounding waste, might well 
suggest the idea of a terrestrial paradise, and become the types of the 
still fairer creations of poetic fable. It would really seem, however, 
that the first of these Elysian groves was at this extremity of Cyrena- 
ica, and that the original idea of the legend was taken from a subter- 
ranean garden of the above description. 

This celebrated retreat is stated by Syclax to have been an enclosed 
spot of ten stadia each way, filled with thickly planted fruit trees of 
various kinds, and inaccessible on all sides. It was situated at 620 
stadia (fifty geographical miles) from the port of Barce ; and this agrees 
precisely with that of the place described by Captain Beechy from 
Ptolemeta. 

The testimony of Pliny is also very decided in fixing the site of the 
Hesperides in the neighborhood of Berenice. He says : 

'" Not far from the city' (Berenice) 'is the river Lethon and the 
sacred groves where the gardens of the Hesperides are said to be sit- 
uated.' 

" We do not mean," remarks Captain Beechy, " to point out any one 
of these subterranean gardens as that which is described in the passage 
just quoted from Syclax ; for we know of no one which will correspond 
in point of extent to the garden which the author has mentioned. All 
those which we saw, were considerably less than the fifth of a mile in 
diameter (the measurement given by Syclax) ; and the places of this 
nature which would best agree with the dimensions, are now filled with 
water sufficiently fresh to be drinkable, and take the form of romantic 
little lakes. 

" Scarcely any of the gardens we met with, were, however, of the 
same depth or extent ; and we have no reason to conclude that, because 
we saw none which were large enough to be fixed upon for the garden 
of the Hesperides, that there is therefore no place of the dimensions 
required ; particularly, as the singular formation alluded to, continues 



MORS OR DEATH. 71 



to the feet of the Cyrenaic chain, which is fourteen miles distant in the 
nearest part from Berenice." 

MORS OR DEATH. 

Mors, born of Night and without a father, was one of the infernal 
deities. By the ancients she was worshipped with great solemnity, and 
was represented by them, not as an actually existing power, but as an 
imaginary being. 

" The figures of Mors or Death," says Spence, " are very uncommon, 
as indeed those of the evil and hurtful beings generally are. They 
were banished from all medals, and on seals and rings they were proba- 
bly considered as bad omens, and were perhaps never used. Among 
the very few figures of Mors I have met with, that in the Florentine 
gallery is, I think, the most remarkable ; it is a little figure in brass 
of a skeleton sitting on the ground, and resting one of its hands on a 
long urn. I fancy Mors was common enough in the paintings of old, 
because she is so frequently mentioned in a descriptive manner by the 
Roman poets." 

The face of Mors, when they gave her any face, seems to have been 
of a pale, wan, dead color. The poets describe her as ravenous, treach- 
erous, and furious, and as roving about open-mouthed and ready to 
swallow up all who came in her way. They give her black robes and 
dark wings ; and often make her of a colossal stature. From the epi- 
thets pallida and lucida, pale and wan, she must have been represented 
with a pale face and meagre body, instead of the bare skull and skele- 
ton of some modern painters. 

The description of Death by the ancients was more frightful and 
dismal than that of modern artists and poets. They describe her as 
thundering at the doors of mortals to demand the debt they owe her. 
Sometimes as approaching their bedsides ; and sometimes pursuing 
her prey ; or as hovering in the air, and ready to seize it. Mors is 
represented, like the gladiators called retiares, pursuing men with a 
net, as catching or dragging them to their tombs ; or, as surround' 
persons like the hunters of old, and encompassing them on ev 
with her toils. This way of hunting is very distinctly dr 
Statius, and Plutarch speaks of toils twelve miles in leng 
an eastern custom still practised, and the author of the 
speaks in a similar figurative style, of being enccmpassed 
of Death. 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



The most picturesque description of this deity to be found in the 
ancient poets, is where Statius represents her by the side of a youth in 
the flower of his age and attended by Envy and Vengeance, or Neme- 
sis. These terrific deities show great friendship for each other in the 
execution of their purpose, and Vengeance, in particular, seems, by 
the account, to take the net out of Death's hand to perform her office 
for her. 

Death is sometimes represented as a skeleton, wearing a black robe, 
covered with stars, and having wings of an enormous length, and her 
fleshless arms supporting a scythe. No temples were dedicated to her, 
and no sacrifices offered, because Death is inexorable, inaccessible to 
entreaties, and unmoved by prayers and offerings. 

The Greeks acknowledged no god or goddess of Death. They knew 
only of a genius of Death, who reversed and quenched his torch when- 
ever he brought a mortal to his last rest. He is represented od an 
Etrurian bas-relief as a perfect cherub.* 

SOMNUS. 

Somnus, the son of Night, presided over sleep. According to some 
mythologists, his palace was a dark cave, where the sun never pene- 
trates ; at the entrance are a number of poppies and somniferous herbs. 
Virgil places him in the entrance to the infernal shades, on account 
of his relation to Lethe ; but Ovid and Statius give him a place on 
our Earth. 

The Grod of Sleep is represented as a child stretched on a couch in 
a profound slumber, holding in his hand a bunch of poppies, which 
serve also for a pillow. The Dreams stand by him ; and Morpheus, 
as his attendant, watches to prevent the disturbance of his repose. 
Sometimes his head rests upon a lion's skin and sometimes on a lion 
(as in a statue in Maffei), with one arm either a little over or under 
his head, and the other hanging carelessly by the side of the couch, 
having placed in it poppies, or a horn full of poppy juice. 

is often winged ; and so like Cupid as to be frequently mistaken 

notwithstanding the lizard at his feet, the proper attribute of 

it sleeps during half the year. The lizard is not men- 

) poets, and may have been used by artists merely for the 

^eks, this class of deities were more allegorical than with the Romans j 
nctly mentioned as deities by the poets. 



MORS OR DEATH. 73 



sake of distinction, though the poppy seems sufficient for the purpose, 
except in some few pieces, where the distinguishing attributes of both 
are blended together. In that case, it may be intended to represent 
Cupids under the character of Somnus. 

Poets speak often of the wings of Somnus and of their being black, 
as most proper for the god who chiefly rules at night. For the same 
reason, the figures of him are of ebony, basalt, or dark-colored marble. 
Such is the fine statue at Florence, which holds a horn in the hand so 
remissly, that the poppy juice is running out of it. Somnus is sup- 
posed to give sleep to mortals by shedding some drops from his horn, 
by touching them with his virga or rod, or by gently passing by their 
bedside. When he gave troubled sleep, or tumultuous dreams, he 
mixed the water of some infernal river with his poppy juice 

Statius describes Somnus more frequently than any other poet. He 
represents him as standing on the highest point in the moon's course, 
and hovering down from thence just at midnight, with his wings spread 
over the Earth. He speaks of several relievos, on each of which this 
god was grouped with appropriate companions. In the first, he was 
with Voluptas, as the goddess of feasts ; in the second, with Labor, 
represented as tired and inclined to rest ; in the third, with Bacchus ; 
and in the fourth, with the God of Love. 

All these fine images are in Statius' description of the palace of 
Sleep. He places it in the unknown parts of Ethiopia ; and Ovid in 
Italy, near the lake Avernus. Somnus' attendants before the gates, 
were Rest, Ease, Indolence, Silence, and Oblivion ; and within, were 
a multitude of dreams in various forms and attitudes. Over these, 
says Ovid, presided the three chiefs who inspire great persons only 
with dreams. Morpheus, such as relate to men ; Phobaetor, such as' 
relate to animals ; and Photaesse, such as relate to inanimate things. 

MORPHEUS. 

Morpheus, the God of Dreams and son of Night, can assume any 
shape at pleasure, presenting dreams to those who sleep. To the 
palace of Somnus there are said to be two gates, one of ivory and the 
other of horn, out of which dreams pass and repass — the false through 
the ivory, the true through the transparent horn. 

Morpheus is sometimes represented as a man advanced in years 
with two large wings on his shoulders, and two small ones attached U 
his head. In the museum Pia Clementina, he is represented in reliei 



74 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

on a cippus* as a boy treading lightly on tip-toe ; on his head are two 
wings j in his right hand he holds a horn, from which he appears to 
be pouring something ; his left holds a stalk bearing three poppy 
heads. On a relief in the villa Borghese, the god of dreams is again 
represented as a boy with wings, and holding the poppy stalk, but 
without the horn. 

MOMUS. ' 

Momus, a son of Night, was the god of raillery and repartee ; at the 
feasts of the gods he played the buffoon. His office was to reprove the 
faults of the gods, which he did in so sarcastic a manner as to put 
himself out of favor. He blamed Vulcan, because in the human form 
which he made of clay, he had not placed a window in the breast, by 
which whatever was done or thought there might easily be brought to 
light. He censured the house made by Minerva, because it was not 
movable, by which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided. Of 
the bull which Neptune made, he observed, that the blows might have 
been surer, if the eyes were nearer the horns. Yenus herself was 
exposed to his satire ; and when the sneering god could find no fault 
in the figure of the goddess, he observed as she retired, that the noise 
of her feet was too loud, and very improper in the goddess of beauty. 



* Among the ancients the cippus was generally a small column, sometimes without 
a base or capital, and its greatest ornament, an inscription which preserved the me- 
mory of some event, or of some deceased person. 

They were used for several purposes ;— one was marking distances. These were 
the miliary columns, sometimes having the names of roads, serving as directing posts ; 
and sometimes marking boundaries, with inscriptions indicating the consecrated 
grounds for the hurial of particular families. From the form and ornaments of the last 
mentioned, they have been frequently mistaken for altars. They were consecrated to 
infernal deities, and the manes of the deceased. 

Wher. the ancients marked the enclosure of a new town with the plough, they fixed 
tippi from space to space, upon which they first offered sacrifices. Afterwards towers 
were built in their places. Cippi are often represented upon medals and engraved 
gems, with some divinity placed near them whom they support. They generally bear 
some symbolical figures, and are of varied and elegant proportion. 

The British Museum, in their department of antiquities, have several cippi, one of 
which appears never to have been used, a blank space being left for the name. Ano- 
ther has an inscription to the memory of Viria Primitiva, the wife of Lucius Virius 
Helius, who died at the age of eighteen years, one month, and twenty-four days. Two 
rams' heads are placed at the corners, from which a festoon of flowers is suspended 
below the tablet. At the lower corners are two Sphinges, with a head of Pan in the 
area between them 



CHARON. 75 



Ifor these illiberal reflections upon the gods, he was driven from 
Beaven. 

Momus is generally represented raising a mask from his face, and 
holding a small figure in his hand. 

OHARON. 

Charon, a god of Hell, and" son of Erebus and Night, conducted the 
souls of the dead in a boat over the rivers Styx and Acheron, to the 
infernal regions. But he conveyed no one without their tribute, and 
it was a custom among the ancients in preparing the dead for burial, 
to place a piece of money under the tongue for Charon. 




When a departed soul presented herself for a passage in his boat 
he first inquired whether the traveller could furnish the requisite fee ; 
and if it should happen that the obolus had been forgotten, the poor 
soul was left to wander on the gloomy shores a hundred years before 



70 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

being conducted over the river; and such as had not been honored 
with a funeral, were subjected to the same penalty. 

" A hundred years they wander on the shore, 
At length, their penance done, are wafted o'er." — Mn. vi. 

Among the ancients, it was considered an inexpressible cruelty to 
deny to the dead a burial ; and for this reason, all great commanders 
were careful, after a battle, to inter the bodies of those whose lives had 
been lost in their service. 

No living person was received into Charon's boat, unless he could 
show a golden bough which he had received from the Sybil as a pass- 
port. Yet it is said that iEneas by his piety, Hercules and Theseus 
by their valor, and Orpheus by his music, obtained the privilege of 
passing to and fro in old Charon's ferry boat. 

Charon is represented as an old man with a ragged garment, a long 
grey neglected beard, and his forehead lined with wrinkles. 

NEREUS. 

Nereus, the son of Pontos and Terra, was the personification of the 
smooth sea. 

He married Doris, the daughter of Oceanos, and their children were 
the Nereides, or the nymphs of the sea. They are said to have been 
fifty in number, and their names are all mentioned ; yet but few of 
them are introduced into the history of the gods. The greater part 
of them are represented as forming a splendid retinue when Thetis 
and Amphitrite, the principal ones, appeared on the sea. 

The imagination of the ancients allowed no place to remain unin- 
habited, and therefore formed a multitude of creatures, and a variety 
of abodes, in regions which none but immortals could inhabit : and the 
rising of the marine deities from their crystal palaces to the surface of 
the waters afforded a subject for some attractive fables among the 
ancient poets. When on the sea shore, the Nereides resided in grot- 
toes and caves, which were adorned with shells and shaded with vine 
branches. 

They are represented as young ^nd handsome virgins, sitting on 
dolphins, and holding Neptune's trident, or sometimes garlands of 
flowers. Their duty was to attend upon tbe more pow?t5vu deH^ of 
the sea and to be subservient to the will of X^ptinao, 



AMPHITRITE. THETIS. GALATvEA. 77 

The Nereides were implored as well as the rest of the deities. Their 
altars were chiefly on the coasts of the sea, where the piety of mankind 
made them offerings of milk, oil, and honey, and often of the flesh of 
goats ; as they had the power of ruffling or calming the waters, they 
were always addressed by sailors, who implored their protection, and 
that they would grant them a favorable voyage and a prosperous return. 

Nereus was represented as an old man, with a long flowing beard, 
and hair of an azure color, and sometimes crowned with sea weed. 
The chief place of his residence was in the iEgean Sea, where he was 
surrounded by his daughters, who often danced around him in chorus. 

He had the gift of prophecy, and informed those who consulted him 
of the different fates that awaited them. 

When Paris carried Helen across the sea, Nereus predicted to him 
the consequences that would follow this elopement ; and, casting his 
quiet looks into the future, revealed the downfall of Troy. 

But the sea-god often evaded the importunities of inquirers by as- 
suming different shapes, and totally escaping from their grasp. When 
Hercules was in quest of the apples of the Hesperides, he was directed 
by the nymphs to Nereus ; finding the god asleep, he seized him. 
Nereus, on waking, changed himself into a variety of forms, but in 
vain ; he was obliged to instruct Hercules how to proceed before the 
hero would release him. 

Nereus was worshipped in all the maritime towns in Greece, and 
was considered as mild, upright, and never unmindful of equity and 
justice. 

AMPHITRITE. THETIS. GALAT.EA. 

Amphitrite became the wife of Poseidon, and was goddess of the 
sea (the Mediterranean). She seldom occurs as a goddess ; and in the 
Homeric poems, Amphitrite is merely the name of the sea. Poseidon's 
attachment to Scylla excited the jealousy of Amphitrite to such a 
degree, that she threw some magic herbs into the well in which she 
bathed herself, and thereby changed her rival into a monster with six 
heads and twelve feet. 

In works of ancient art, Amphitrite was represented in a figure that 
resembled Venus, but was distinguished from that goddess by a net 
that confined her hair, and by the claws of a crab on her forehead. 
She was sometimes represented as riding on marine animals, and some* 
times as drawn by them. 



78 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Thetis was married to the Thessalian king, Peleus. 

Galatsea loved Acis, the handsome shepherd, and the monstrous 
Cyclop, Polyphemos, sued in vain for her favor. On a certain occasion, 
the monster beheld the nymph at the foot of Mt. iEtna, embracing 
his handsome rival. He became distracted with furious jealousy, and 
tearing up a rock from its roots, raised it in the air, and hurled it 
upon the lovers in order to bury them under its weight. 

The nymph swiftly escaped into the sea, but Acis. overwhelmed by 
the massy stone, sprang forth from beneath it as a purling brook, the 
waters of which produced a meandering stream that bore his name 

THAUMAS. 

Astonishment at the grand spectacles of nature rises out of the sea, 
and with a few leading features, is personified in Thaumas, a son of 
Pontos. 

Thaumas is the father, and the Oceanide, Electra (Brightness), the 
mother of Iris or the rainbow ; that wonderful being, who, on account 
of the rapidity with which her feet touched the earth, while her head 
has not yet left the clouds, is represented as the female messenger of 
the immortals. She shared with Mercury the honor of conveying to 
the inhabitants of the earth the mandates of the superior divinities ; 
especially of Juno, to whose service she was particularly attached, and 
whose person she constantly attended. She is represented with all 
the colors of the rainbow. 

Her most serious charge was to cut the thread of life which seemed 
to detain the soul in the expiring body ; she is thus represented by 
Virgil, as being sent by Juno from Olympus to release the struggling 
soul of Dido. 

HARPIES. 

Children of the same parents are the swift-winged Harpies, Aello, 
Ocypete. and Celaeno ; who, like raging tornadoes, rush forth from the 
sea and seize their prey — a horror to mortals who are unable to resist 
their rapacious claws. They are represented as having the faces of 
virgins, the bodies of vultures, and the claws of lions. 

They were sent by Juno to plunder the tables of Phineus, whence 
they were driven to the islands called Strophades. They plundered 
iEneias during his voyage towards Italy, and predicted many of thy 
calamities which attended him. 



THE GORGONS. 



79 



According to Damm, the term Har- 
pya signifies properly a violent wind, 
carrying off any thing that is exposed 
to its fury ; in other words, a furious 
whirlwind. Hence the fable of the 
Harpies. To the vivid imagination 
of the Greeks, the terrors of the storm 
were intimately associated with the 
idea of powerful and active daemons 
directing its fury. The names given 
to the Harpies indicate ' this ; viz. 
Ocypete, rapid ; Celaeno, obscurity ; 
and Aello, a storm. With Homer, the 
Harpies are goddesses who suddenly 
carry off persons unseen and unheard. 

Penelope, in her prayer to Diana, 
represents them as goddesses of the 

storm and winds, who dwell in the vicinity of the Furies, on the bor 
ders of Oceanos, near the opening that leads to the world of spirits 
(Od. xx. 62.) 

The mixed form commonly assigned to them, was the addition of a 
later age. 




GRMM. 

Phorcys, and his wife Ceto, are the children of Pontos and parents 
of the monsters. Grrseaa ( Gray -maids.) Perphredo (horrifier), Enyo 
(shaker), and Deino (terrifier). three decrepit virgins, who were grey 
with age from their very birth. Their abode was at the end of the 
earth, where reigns eternal night. 

THE GORGONS. 



The G-orgons, Euryale, Stheino, and Medusa, were daughters of the 
same parents. Instead of hair their heads were covered with serpents. 
They had the faces and breasts of women, and their bodies, which 
terminated in the tails of serpents, were covered with scales. Their 
very looks had the power of turning the beholder to stone. Medusa, 
who was killed by Perseus, was the only one of them subject to mor- 
tality. 



80 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

We find the Graese always united with the Gorgons, whose guards 
they were, according to iEschylus. This poet describes them as " three 
long-lived maids, swan formed, having one eye and one tooth in com- 
mon, and on whom the sun with his beams nor the mighty moon ever 
looks." Perseus, he says, intercepted the eye as they were handing it 
from one to the other, and having thus blinded the guard, was enabled 
to approach the Gorgons unperceived. 

CHRYSAOR. 

From the blood of Medusa, sprang Chrysaor with the golden sword, 
and the winged Pegasos. 

Chrysaor married Callirrhoe, a daughter of Oceanos ; and they became 
the parents of the triple-bodied Geryon, and Echidna, who was upwards 
a beautiful nymph, but terminated below in a hideous coiling dragon. 

With Echidna, the giant Typhosus produced the triple-headed dog 
Cerberos, that watched the gates of Pluto's dismal realm ; — the two- 
headed dog Orthrus, the Lernasan Hydra, and the fire-vomiting Chi- 
mgera. Echidna is also said to be the mother of the Nemsean Lion 
and the mysterious Sphinx. 

CERBEROS. 

Cerberos was variously described by the ancient mythologists and 
poets. According to Hesiod he had fifty heads, and according to 
others only three. He was stationed at the entrance of Hell as a 
watchful keeper, to prevent the living from entering the infernal re- 
gions, and the dead from escaping their confinement. It was usual 
for the heroes, who in their lifetime visited the dominions of Aides, to 
appease the barking mouth of Cerberos with a cake. 

HYDRA. 

The celebrated Hydra, which infested the lake of Lerna in Pelopon 
nesus, had, according to Diodorus, a hundred heads ; according to Si- 
monides, fifty ; and according to the more received opinion of Apollo- 
dorus, the number was nine. As soon as one of these heads was cut 
off, two immediately grew in its place, unless the wound was instantly 
touched with fire. To destroy the Hydra was one of the twelve labors 
of Hercules. 



CHIMERA. 81 



CHIMERA. 

Chimaera was represented as a dreadful monster, having the head 
and breast of a lion, the body of a goat, and continually vomited forth 
fire. 

This fiction was probably occasioned by a lambent flame of some 
ignited gas issuing from a small cavity in the side of a lofty mountain 
of Lycia, and which is still apparent. On the summit of the mountain 
were lions ; in the middle goats pastured ; and the lower parts cf it 
were infested with serpents. Bellerophon, a famous hero, made this 
mountain habitable, and was therefore said to have killed the Chimaera 

" First dire Chimaera' s conquest was enjoined; 
A mingled monster of no mortal kind : 
Behind a fiery dragon's tail was spread; 
A goat's rough body bore a lion's head; 
Her pitchy nostrils flashy flames expire ; 
Her gaping throat emits eternal fire." 

We are indebted to Capt. Beaufort for an accurate account of the 
Chimaera flame, which after the lapse of so many centuries is still 
unsubdued. This able navigator and antiquary, being at the same 
time east of Olympos, says : 

Ci He had seen from the ship, the preceding night, a small but steady 
light among the hills ; on mentioning the circumstance to the inhabit- 
ants, we learned that it was a yanar or volcanic flame, and they offered 
to supply us with horses and guides to examine it. 

" We rode about two miles, through a fertile plain partly cultivated, 
and then winding up a rocky and thickly -wooded glen, we arrived at 
the place. In the inner corner of a ruined building, the wall is under- 
mined so as to leave an aperture of about three feet diameter, and 
shaped like the mouth of an oven ; from thence the flame issues, giving 
out an intense heat, yet producing no smoke on the wall ; and though 
from the opening we detached some small lumps of caked soot, the 
walls were hardly discolored. Trees, brushwood, and weeds grow 
close around this little crater; a small stream trickles down the hill 
hard by, and the ground does not appear to feel the effects of its heat 
beyond the distance of a few yards. No volcanic productions whatever 
were perceived in the neighborhood. The guide declared that in the 
memory of man there had been but one hole, and that it had never 

6 



$£ GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY, 



changed its appearance. It was never accompanied "by earthquakes or 
noises, and it ejected neither stones, smoke, nor noxious vapors ; noth- 
ing but a brilliant and perpetual flame, which no quantity of water 
could quench." 

THE SPHINX., 

The Sphinx was a monster with the face of a woman, the breast, 
feet, and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. Juno, always hostile 
to the city of Dionysos, sent this monster to ravage the territory of 
Thebes. She had been taught riddles by the Muses, and from the 
Phicean Hill propounded one to the Thebans : It was this : " What is 
that which has one voice, is four-footed, two-footed, and at last three- 
footed?" The oracle told the Thebans that they would not be delivered 
from the Sphinx until they had solved her riddle. They often met to 
try their skill, and when they failed, the Sphinx carried off and de- 
voured one of their number. At length Haemon, son of Creon, having 
become her victim, his father, by public proclamation, offered his throne 
and the hand of his sister Iocasta to whoever should solve the riddle. 

(Edipus, who was then at Thebes, hearing this, came forward and 
answered the Sphinx, that it was man, who when an infant creeps on 
all fours ; when a man, goes on two feet ; and when old, uses a staff, a 
third foot. The Sphinx then flung herself down to the earth and 
perished. 

The Sphinx was a favorite emblem among the Egyptians, and served, 
according to some, as a type of the enigmatic nature of the Egyptian 
theology. 

M. Maillet is of opinion, that the union of the head of a virgin with 
the body of a lion is a symbol of the retreat of the Egyptians to the 
high lands, when the sun is in the signs Leo and Virgo, and the Nile 
overflows. According to Herodotus, however, the Egyptians had also 
their Androsphinges, with the body of a lion and the face of a man. 

At the present day there still remains, about three hundred paces 
east of the second pyramid, a celebrated statue of a Sphinx, cut in the 
solid rock. Formerly, nothing but the head, neck, and top were visible, 
the rest being sunk in the sand. It was, at the expense of eight or 
nine hundred pounds (contributed by some European gentlemen), 
cleared from the accumulated sand in front of it, under the superin- 
tendence of Captain Caviglia. 

This monstrous production consists of a virgin head joined to the 



GIANTS. CYCLOPES. TITANS. 83 

body of a quadruped. The body is principally formed out of the solid 
rock ; the paws are of masonry, extending forward fifty feet from the 
body ; between the paws are several sculptured tablets, so arranged as 
to form a small temple, and further forward, a square altar with horns. 
The length of the statue from the fore-part of the neck to the tail is a 
hundred and twenty-five feet. The face has been disfigured by the 
arrows and lances of the Arabs, who are taught by their religion to 
hold all images of men and animals in detestation. 

GIANTS. CYCLOPES. TITANS. 

Earth united with Heaven produced Oceanos and the giants with 
fifty heads and a hundred hands — by which is meant, the personification 
of the great powers of nature — as their names signify : Cottos (erup- 
tion), Briareos (hurricane), and G-yes (earthquake). The Cyclopes which 
represented the energies of the sky ; Steropes (lightning), Brontes 
(thunder), and Arges (the candent bolt). Also the Titans and Titanides, 
whose names signify the milder powers of nature, or some of the planets. 
Titans,* Cceos (he that begets), Hyperion (superior or wandering on high), 
Crios (the ruler), Japetos (intention), Kronos (time). Titanides — Phoebe 
(the shining), Rhea (succession,), Themis (justice), Theia (order), Tethys 
(the nourisher), Mnemosyne (retention or memory). 

These productions became formidable to their father, who closely 
confined them in the grottoes of the earth and never permitted them 
to see the light. Earth, displeased at their fate, forged the first sickle 
or scythe, and giving it to Kronos, the youngest of the Titans, insti- 
gated him to limit the power of his father by maiming him. From the 
drops of blood that Earth received in her lap, arose the giants Por- 
phyrion, Alcyoneus, Cromedon, Encelados, and Rhoetus. What fell 
into the sea rendered it prolific, and from the foam arose Yenus, 
the goddess of Love and Beauty. She war? the first beautiful object 
that arose from the contest of power against power among the produc- 
tions of Earth ; and deriving her origin from the creative power of 
Heaven, she is the representation of all that is beautiful and attrac- 
tive, commanding the homage of gods as well as men. 



* So call d from Titaia, one of the epithets of earth. 



84 GREOIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



THE NYMPHS. 

According to Hesiod, the Nymphs were also the productions of 
Heaven. The Greeks divided them into various orders according to 
the place of their abode. 

Thus, the Mountain-Nymphs (Oreiads) haunted the mountains. 
The JVapcece, or Dale-Nymphs, the valleys ; the Leimoniades, or Mead- 
Nymphs, the meadows ; the Naiades ■, or "Water-Nymphs, the rivers, 
brooks, and springs ; the Limniades, or Lake-Nymphs, the lakes and 
pools. There were also the Hamadryades, or Tree-Nymphs, who were 
born and died with the trees ; the Dry odes, or Wood-Nymphs, and 
the Meliades, the Fruit-tree-Nymphs, or Flock-Nymphs, who watched 
over gardens, or flocks of sheep. 

The charge of rearing various gods and heroes was committed to the 
Nymphs ; for instance, they were the nurses of Dionysos, Pan, and 
even Jupiter himself ; and they also brought up Aristaeos and iEneias, 
They were also the attendants of the goddesses ; they waited on Juno 
and Venus, and in huntress-attire, pursued the deer over the moun- 
tains in the company of Artemis. 

In the Homeric poems, the most ancient portion of Grecian litera- 
ture, we meet the various classes of Nymphs. In the Odyssey, they 
are the attendants of Calypso, herself a goddess and a Nymph. Of 
the female attendants of Circe, the powerful daughter of Helios, also 
designated as a goddess and a Nymph, it is said, 

" They spring from fountains and from sacred groves, 
And holy streams that flow into the sea."— Od. x. 350. 

Yet these Nymphs are of divine nature ; and when Jupiter, the fa- 
ther of the gods, calls together his council, 

"None of the streams, save Ocean, stayed away; 
Nor of the Nymphs ; who dwelled in beauteous groves, 
And springs of streams, and verdant grassy shades!" — II. xx. 7. 

The good Eumaeos prays to the Nymphs to speed the return of his 
master, reminding them of the numerous sacrifices which Odysseus 
has offered to them. In another part of the poem their sacred cave is 
thus described : 



THE NYMPHjE. 85 



"But at the harbor's head a long-leafed olive 
Grows, and near to it lies a lonely cave, 
Dusky, and sacred to the Nymphs, whom men 
Call Naiades. In it large craters lie, 
And two-ear' d pitchers, all of stone; and there 
Bees build their combs. In it, too, are long looms 
Of stone, and there the Nymphs do weave their robes, 
Sea-purple, wondrous to behold. Aye-flowing 
Waters are there. Two entrances it hath ; 
That to the north is pervious unto men ; 
That to the south more sacred is, and there 
Men enter not, but 'tis the immortals' path." 

One of the most interesting species of Nymphs are the Hamadry- 
ades, those personifications of the vegetable life of plants. They pos- 
sessed the power to reward and punish those who prolonged or abridged 
the existence of their associate-tree. In the Argonautics of Apollonius 
Rhodius, Phineas thus explains to the heroes the cause of the poverty 
of Persebios : 

" But he was paying the penalty laid on 
His father's crime ; for one time cutting trees 
Alone among the hills, he spurned the prayer 
Of the Hamadryas Nymph, who, weeping sore, 
With earnest words besought him not to cut 
The trunk of an oak tree, which, with herself 
Coeval, had endured for many a year. 
But, in the pride of youth, he foolishly 
Cut it : and to him and his race the Nymph 
Gave ever after a lot profitless." 

The Scholiast gives, on this passage, the following tale from Charon 
of Lampsacus : 

A man named Rhcecos, happening to see an oak just ready to fall to 
the ground, ordered his slaves to prop it up. The Nymph, who had 
been on the point of perishing with the tree, came to him expressing 
her gratitude for having saved her life, and at the same time desired 
him to ask what reward he would. Rhcecos then requested permission 
to be her lover, to which the Nymph acceded ; charging him at the 
same time to avoid the society of other women, and told him that a bee 
should be her messenger. On a time, the bee happened to come to 
Rhoecos as he was playing at draughts, when he made a rude reply ; 
which so incensed the Nymph that she deprived him of sight. 



86 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



OCEANOS. 

Oeeanos, son of Heaven and Earth ( Uranos and Ge, or Calm and 
Terra), married Tetkys, in connection with whom he produced the 
.Rivers and Fountains, and the Oceanides. 

The name of Oeeanos is made to signify an immense stream, which 
according to the rude ideas of the ancients circulated round the terra- 
queous plain, and from which the different seas ran out in the manner 
of bays. This opinion, which was also that of Eratosthenes, was preva- 
lent even in the time of Herodotus. This same river Oeeanos was 
supposed to ebb and flow thrice in a single day ; and the heavenly 
bodies were believed to descend into it at their setting, and emerge 
from it at their rising. 

On the shield of Achilles the poet represents Oeeanos as encircling 
the rim or extreme border of the shield, in full accordance with the 
popular belief of the day. But in Virgil's time, when this primitive 
meaning of the term was obselete, and more correct geographical views 
had been obtained, we find the sea (the idea probably being borrowed 
from the position of the Mediterranean) occupying, in the poet's descrip- 
tion, the centre of the shield of iEneias. 

The ancients were superstitious in their worship of Oeeanos, rever- 
encing, with great solemnity, a deity to whose care they intrusted 
themselves when going on a voyage. He presided over every part of 
the sea, and even rivers were subject to his power. According to 
Homer, he was father of all the gods, and on that account received 
frequent visits from the other deities. 

Oeeanos is generally represented as an old man, with a long, flowing 
beard, and sitting upon the waves of the sea. He often holds a pike 
in his hand, and ships under sail appear in the distance. 

RIVERS AND FOUNTAINS. 

As productions of Oeeanos, the Rivers and Fountains belong to the 
ancient Deities ; but in the later history of the gods, imagination has 
given them personality, and they appear as active beings. As for 
example, Scamander, Achelous, Peneus, Alpheios, and Inachos. This 
personification of the running waters has given rise to some beautiful 
fictions, and the head of a people whose origin is not known, is called 
a son of the river near the shores of which are found the dwellings of 



RIVERS AND BOUNTAINS. 



87 




his descendants. iEschylus introduces the Fountains as pitying Pro- 
metheus, when he was chained to the rock by Jupiter, and complaining 
with him of the tyranny to which, he was subjected. 

The river Nile, fabled to 
be the son of Oceanos, has 
been personified in several 
statues, but more particu- 
larly a very fine one of 
black marble now in the 
Vatican. He is distin- 
guished by his large Cor- 
nucopia, by the Sphinx 
couched under him. and 
by the sixteen little chil- 
dren playing around him. 

The Cornucopia is in- 
troduced with great pro- 
priety, this river being 
the absolute cause of the 
great fertility of Lower 
Egypt, which it supplies with soil as well as moisture. He was their 
Jupiter Pluvius, or chief river god, and thence termed by Tibullus, 
the Egyptian Jupiter. The Sphinx is supposed by some to allude to 
the mystic knowledge so much cultivated in Egypt ; and by others to 
the retreat of the Egyptians from the Nile, in the signs Leo and 
Virgo. By the sixteen children are understood the several risings of 
the river every year, as far as to sixteen cubits. This piece of statu- 
ary is said to be of black marble, in allusion to the Nile's coming from 
Ethiopia. 

It is worthy of remark, that Virgil, in his account of iEneias' shield, 
describes the Nile as of a vast size, and exhibiting in his countenance 
a mingled expression of terror and concern, spreading his robe, and 
inviting the defeated fleet of Cleopatra to the inmost recesses of this 
stream. In the Vatican statue the water flows down from under his 
robe, which conceals his urn, to denote that the head of this river was 
impenetrable. In some modern statues, the head of the figure is for 
the same reason quite hidden under the robe. 

There . are few streams so celebrated in antiquity as the Alpheios. 
Its proximity to the scene of the Olympic contests, continually connects 



88 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



its name with the mention of those memorable games, on the part of 
the ancient poets, and gives it, in particular, a conspicuous place in the 
verses of Pindar. 

There is also a pleasing legend connected with this stream. Ac 
cording to the poets, Alpheios loved and pursued the Nymph Arethusa: 
who was only saved from him by the intervention of Diana, who for 
that purpose changed her into a fountain. This fountain she placed 
in the island of Ortygia, near the coast of Sicily. The ardent river- 
god, however, did not then desist, but worked a passage for himself 
amid the intervening ocean, and rising again in the Ortygian island, 
his waters were mingled with those of the fountain Arethusa. 

According to another version of the same legend, it was Diana her- 
self, and not the nymph Arethusa, whom the river-god of the Alpheus 
pursued ; and when this pursuit ended in the island of Ortygia, then 
arose the fountain Arethusa. 

This account affords a clew to the true meaning of the entire fable. 
The goddess, it appears, had an altar at Olympia in common with the 
god of the Alpheus. To the same Diana water was held sacred ; and 
this part of her worship, having passed from the Peloponnesus into 
Sicily, the worship of the Alpheus accompanied it ; or, in other words. 
a common altar for the two divinities was erected by the Syracusans 
in Ortygia, similar in its attendant rites and ceremonies to the altar at 
Olympia. In the island of Ortygia all water was considered sacred, 
and Diana was worshipped at the fountain of Arethusa. And from 
this commingling of rites arose the poetic legend, that the Alpheus 
had passed through the ocean to Ortygia and blended its waters with 
those of Arethusa ; or, in other words, its rites with those of Diana. 

INACHOS. 

A considerable portion of ancient history is traced back to Inachos, 
son of Oceanos. Inachos was a stream that watered the fields of Ar- 
golis in Peloponnesus; fiction gave it personality, and made it the 
author of the people who lived around its shores. 

His son Phoroneus taught them the use of fire; and having pre- 
viously been dispersed in the woods, he persuaded them to unite and 
build themselves contiguous dwellings. Thus, Phoroneus causing his 
people to make the first step towards civilization, became one of the 
earliest and principal benefactors to mankind 



io. 89 

Io, a daughter of Inachos, loved by Jupiter, and persecuted by Juno, 
was transformed into a cow, and furiously driven over the whole earth, 
until she found a resting-place in Egypt. There she had a temple 
erected, and was worshipped as a goddess (Isis). She gave a son to 
Jupiter, called Epaphos, from whom sprang a royal race, that after- 
wards reigned in Greece ; founding their right of royal authority on 
descent from old Inachos. 

Lybia, a daughter of the Egyptian king Epaphos, gave two sons to 
Poseidon, Belus and Agenor ; the latter was king of Tyre. Cadmos, 
who is said to have brought the first letters into Greece, and to have 
founded the city of Thebes, was his son ; and Europa, the mother of 
Minos, his daughter. 

Belus, the other grandson of Epaphos, was the father of Danaos and 
Egyptus, the former of whom came over from Egypt to Greece, and 
reigned in Argos. From him Acrisius descended, the father of Danae, 
and the grandfather of the heroic Perseus. Alcaeus was a son of Per- 
seus ; and a grand-daughter of Alcaeus, Alcmena, was the mother of 
Hercules. 

These are the principal personages descended from the heroic family 
of Inachos. From the impossibility of tracing back any family of 
kings further than Inachos, arose the common saying of the ancient 
poets : " Though thou canst derive thy origin from old Inachos, thou 
still remainest a victim of inexorable Orcus." 

10. 

Io, daughter of Inachos, was priestess of Juno at Argos, and, unhap 
pily for her. was beloved by Jupiter. When this god found that his 
conduct had excited the suspicions of Juno, he changed Io into a white 
cow, and declared with an oath that he had been guilty of no infidelity. 

The Goddess, affecting to believe him, asked the cow as a present ; 
and, on obtaining her, set the " all-seeing Argus" to watch her. He 
accordingly bound her to an olive-tree in the grove of Mycenae, and 
there kept guard over her. Jupiter, pitying her situation, directed 
Mercury to steal her away. The god of ingenious devices made the 
attempt ; but, as a vulture always gave Argus warning of his projects, 
he found it impossible to succeed. Nothing then remained but open 
force. Mercury killed Argus with a stone, having first lulled him to 
sleep with his lyre, and hence obtained the appellation of Argus-slayer 

The vengeance of Juno, however, was not yet satiated ; and she sent 



90 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

a gadfly to torment Io, who fled over the whole world from its pursuit 
She swam through the Ionian Sea, which was fabled to have hence 
derived its name from her. She then roamed over the plains of Illy- 
ria, ascended Mount Haemus, and crossed the Thracian Strait, thence 
named the Bosphorus : she rambled on through Scythia and the coun- 
try of the Cimmerians, and, after wandering over various regions of 
Europe and Asia, arrived at last on the banks of the Nile, where she 
assumed her original form, and bore to Jupiter a son named Epaphos. 

The legend of Io appears not to have attracted much attention from 
the earlier poets. iEschylus introduces her into his " Prometheus 
Bound," and he also relates her story in his " Suppliants." Her story, 
however, was noticed in the iEgimius, where it was said that her father's 
name was Peirea, and that her keeper, Argus, had four eyes, and that 
the island of Euboea derived its name from her. 

When the Greeks first settled in Egypt, and saw the statues of Isis 
with the cow's horns, they, in their usual manner, inferred that she was 
their own Io, with whose name hers had a slight similarity. At Mem- 
phis they afterwards beheld the worship of the holy bull Apis, and 
naturally supposing the bull-god to be the son of the cow-goddess, they 
formed from him a son for their Io, whose name was the occasion of a 
new legend, relative to the mode by which she was restored to her 
pristine form. 

The whole story of Io is an agricultural legend, and admits of an 
easy explanation. Io, whether considered as the offspring of Iasos 
(the favorite of Ceres), or Peiron (the " experimenter " or " tryer "), is 
a type of early agriculture, progressing gradually by the aid of slow 
and painful experience. Jupiter represents the firmament, the genial 
source of light and life ; Juno, on the other hand, is the type of the 
atmosphere, with its stormy and capricious changes. Early agriculture 
suffers from these changes, which impede more or less the fostering 
influence of the pure firmament that lies beyond ; and hence, man is 
obliged to watch with incessant and sleepless care over the labors of 
primitive husbandry. This ever-watchful superintendence is typified 
by Argus with his countless eyes, save that in the legend he becomes 
an instrument of punishment in the hands of Juno. 

If we turn to the version of the fable as given in the iEgimius, the 
meaning of the whole story becomes still plainer ; for here, the four 
eyes of. Argns are types of the four seasons, while the name, Euboea, 
contains a direct reference to success in agriculture. Argus, continues 



STYX. 91 



the legend, was slain by Mercury, and lo was then left free to wander 
over the whole earth. Now, as Mercury was the god of language, and 
the inventor of letters, what is this but saying, that when the rules and 
precepts of agriculture were introduced, first orally, and then in writing, 
mankind were released from that ever-watching care which early hus- 
bandry had required from them, and agriculture, now reduced to a 
regular system, went forth in freedom and spread itself among the 
nations % Again, in Egypt lo finds at last a resting-place ; here she 
assumes her original form, and here brings forth Epaphos as the off- 
spring of Jupiter. What is this but saying, that agriculture was car- 
ried to perfection in the fertile land of the Nile, and that here it was 
touched by the true generative influence from on high, and brought 
forth in the richest abundance ? Still further, the eyes of Argus, we 
are told, were transferred by Juno to the plumage of her favorite bird ; 
and the peacock, it is well known, gives sure indications, by its cry, of 
changes about to take place in the atmosphere, and is in this respect, 
therefore, intimately connected with the operations of husbandry. We 
see, too, from this, why, since Juno is the type of the atmosphere, the 
peacock was considered as sacred to that goddess. 

Ovid gives to Argus a hundred eyes, of which only two ever slept at 
the same time : he also makes Mercury to have slain him with a harpc, 
or short curved sword. 

STYX. 

Styx, a daughter of Oceanos and Tethys. Also a celebrated river 
of hell round which it flowed nine times. The waters of this subterra- 
nean fountain trickle in nightly gloom from a high vaulted rock, form- 
ing the stream over which there is no return ; and by this stream the 
gods swear that inviolable oath, the obligation of which no power of 
heaven or earth can dissolve. Thus the gods on high swear by the 
deep where night reigns, and where, according to the ancients, are the 
foundations of the universe on which depend the preservation of all 
things. 

If any of the gods were guilty of perjury, Jupiter obliged them to 
drink of the water of the Styx, which for a whole year lulled them to 
senseless stupidity ; for the nine following years they were deprived 
of the nectar and ambrosia of the gods ; after the expiration of this 
period of punishment they were restored to the assembly of the gods 
and to the enjoyment of their original privileges. 



92 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

It is said that this veneration was shown to the Styx, because it 
received its name from the nymph Styx, who with her three daughters 
assisted Jupiter in the war of the gods against the Titans. One of 
the early Greek traditions says, that the oath by the Styx originated 
in the supposition that the waters of this river formed a draught that 
was fatal even to the gods. 

According to some writers, the Styx was a small river of Nonacris 
in Arcadia, whose waters were so cold and poisonous as to be fatal to 
all who tasted them. Among others, Alexander the Great is mentioned 
as a victim to their poison. They even consumed iron and demolished 
vessels ; and their wonderful properties suggested the idea that they 
formed a river of hell ; especially when they disappeared in the earth 
a little below their fountain-head. 

HYPERION 

Hyperion and Theia unite and produce Eos (Dawn or Aurora), 
Helios, and Luna. Eos married Astraeos (Starry), the son of the Titan 
Crios, and became the mother of the winds, Zephyros, Boreas, and 
Notos, and Eosphoros (Dawn-bearer), or the morning star. 

Appearing in the grey twilight of morning, Aurora lifts with rosy 
fingers the veil of Night, sheds a radiant lustre over the earth, and 
disappears at the entrance of Helios. 

She is represented as standing in a magnificent chariot, and some- 
times drawn by winged steeds. A brilliant star sparkles upon her 
forehead, and while with one hand she grasps the reins, she holds in 
the other a lighted torch. 

ANEMOI. WINDS. 

In the Iliad, the winds are represented as gods, but not winged. 
Wings, horses, and chariots are the additions of later poets. The 
Winds were feasting in the dwelling of Zephyros when Iris bore to 
them the prayer of Achilleus, that they would inflame the pyre of Pa* 
troclos. In the Odyssey they are not directed by separate deities, but 
are all under the charge of iEolos. 

The winds were divided into wholesome and noxious. The former 
were Boreas (North), Zephyros ( West), and Notos (South). In Greece 
and the rest of Europe, the east wind is regarded as noxious, and those 
that blow from the east are described by Hesiod as of the race of 
Typhosus, the last and most terrible child of Earth. 



HECATE. 93 



Boreas was called Clear-weather or Frost-producer. He is fabled to 
have loved and carried off Oreithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, king 
of Athens. The Athenians ascribed the destruction of the fleet of 
Xerxes by a storm, to the partiality of Boreas for the country of 
Oreithyia, and after that event, built a temple to his honor. 

Zephyros is described by Homer as a strong-blowing wind, but he 
was afterwards regarded as gentle and soft-breathing. 

HELIOS OR SOL. 

Helios, or Sol, belonged likewise to the ancient deities ; in which, 
with a few strong features, the grand objects of nature are personified ; 
for it is the shining sun that appears in the image of Helios. His 
head is surrounded by rays, and he gives light both to gods and men. 
He sees and hears every thing, and discovers all that is kept secret. 

To him were sacred those fat oxen that grazed without herdsmen in 
the island of Sicily, and at the sight of which he was delighted as he 
passed through the skies. When, therefore, the companions of Ulysses 
had killed several of them, the god of the sun threatened Jupiter that 
he would descend into Orcus and carry light to the dead unless he 
avenged the injury done him. Jupiter terrified by his threats, imme- 
diately dashed the ship in pieces, so that Ulysses' companions became 
a prey to the sea. (II. xii. 260.) 

Sometimes the god of the sun is called Titan, on account of his 
belonging to that family ; or from his father, with whom he is some- 
times confounded in ancient tales ; or Hyperion, a name which signifies 
height or sublimity ; and it is remarkable that a term of precisely the 
same import (Ikare) is applied to the same luminary by the Iroquois of 
North America. 

Sol was an object of veneration among the ancients, and was partic- 
ularly worshipped by the Persians under the name of Mithras. 

HECATE. 

Co'ios and Phcebe unite and produce Latona and Asteria. The latter 
married Perses, and became the mother of Hecate ; who, although of 
the Titan family, is highly honored by Jupiter as well as the other 
gods ; for she belonged to that class of beings whose power was sup- 
posed to extend throughout the universe. She was considered as one 
of the fatal deities who distributed either victory or renown according 
to her pleasure, and in whose hands lies the fate of men. She reigns 



94 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

on earth, in the sea, and in the air; and was called Luna in heaven, 
Diana on the earth, and Persephone in hell. She was supposed to 
preside over magic and enchantment ; and to her, kings and nations 
considered themselves indebted for their prosperity. 

Hecate is undoubtedly a stranger divinity in the mythology of the 
Greeks. It would appear that she was one of the hurtful class of deities, 
transported by Hesiod into the Grecian mythology, and placed behind 
the more popular deities, as a being of earlier existence. Hence the 
remark of the bard, that Jupiter respected all the prerogatives that 
Hecate had enjoyed previous to his ascending the throne of his father. 
Indeed, the sphere which the poets assigned her, places her out of the 
reach of all contact with the acting divinities of the day. She is men- 
tioned neither in the Iliad nor Odyssey, and the attributes assigned 
her in the more recent poem of the Argonauts, are the same with those 
of Persephone in Homer. 

Jablonski regards Hecate as the same with the Egyptian Tithrambo. 
Her actions upon nature, her diversified attributes her innumerable 
functions, are a mixture of physical, allegorical, and philosophical tra- 
ditions respecting the fusion of the elements and the generation of 
beings. Hecate was the night ; and by an extension of this idea, the 
primitive night, the primary cause or parent of all things. She was 
the moon ; and hence were connected with her all those ideas which 
are grouped around the moon ; she is the goddess that troubles the 
reason of men ; the goddess that presides over nocturnal ceremonies, 
and consequently over magic ; hence her identity with Diana for the 
Grecian mythology, and with Isis for the Egyptian ; and hence also 
her cosmogonical attributes assigned to Isis in Egypt. 

Dogs, lambs, and honey were generally offered to Hecate, especially 
in highways and cross-roads — hence she obtained the name of Trivia. 
Expiatory sacrifices were offered to her on the thirtieth of every month, 
in which eggs and young dogs were the principal objects. The remains 
of the offerings, together with a large quantity of all sorts of comesti- 
bles, were exposed in the cross-roads, and called the supper of Hecate. 
The poorer classes and cynics seized upon these viands with an eager- 
ness that passed among the ancients as a mark of extreme indigence, 
or the lowest degree of baseness. 

The Athenians also paid particular worship to Hecate, who was 
deemed the patroness of families and children. From this circum- 
stance the statues of the goddess were erected before th& doors of 



TAPETOS. 95 

houses. Upon every new moon a supper was provided at the expense 
of the wealthy, and set in the streets, where the poorest of the citizens 
were allowed to feast upon it, while they reported that it was devoured 
by Hecate This public supper was always held in a place where 
three ways met, in allusion to the triple nature of the goddess 

There were also expiatory offerings to supplicate the goddess to 
remove whatever evils might impend on the head of the public. 

Her statues were in general dog-headed ; and were set up at Athens 
and elsewhere in the market-places and cross-roads. It is probable 
that the dog-headed form was the ancient and mystic one of Hecate, 
and that under which she was worshipped in the mysteries of Saino- 
thrace, where dogs were immolated in her honor. Her mysteries were 
also celebrated at iEgina, and their establishment was ascribed to 
Orpheus. Numerous statues of the goddess were to be seen in this 
island, one by Myron with a single face, others with two faces, attrib- 
uted to the famous Alcamenes. 

Hecate was generally represented as a woman with the head of a 
female, a horse, or a dog ; and sometimes with three distinct bodies, 
having three different faces united in one neck. 

ASTR^OS. PALLAS. PERSES. 

Crios and Eurybia ( Wide-strength), a daughter of Pontos, gave birth 
to the Titans, Astraeos (Starry). Pallas (Shaker), and Perses (Bright). 

Pallas married Styx, the daughter of Oceanos, who gave him power- 
ful children; Zelos (Zeal), Nike ( Victory), Kratos (Power), and Bia 
{Strength). In the war of the gods, Styx, by the advice of her father, 
went over with her children to Jupiter, and since that time the latter 
have their seat near the ruler of Heaven and Earth. Victory became 
one of the attendants of Jupiter. 

IAPETOS. 

Iapetos marries Clymene, Oceanos' daughter, and is the parent of 
the Titans, Atlas, Mencetius, Epimetheus, and Prometheus. Atlas 
married Pheione, one of the Oceanides, and had twelve daughters 
called Atlantides. Seven of the daughters were changed into a con- 
stellation called Pleiades, and the rest into another called Hyades. 
Atlas was also the father of the fair nymph, Calypso, who so long 
detained Ulysses in her island in the distant west. 



96 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



ATLAS. 

The name of Atlas signifies the Endurer ; and Homer calls him the 
wise or deep thinking, who knows all the depths of the sea, and keeps 
the long pillars which hold Heaven and Earth asunder. 

It is hardly necessary to state, that the Atlas of Homer and Hesiod 
is not the personification of a mountain. In process of time, however, 
when the meaning of the earlier legend had become obscured or lost, 
Atlas, the keeper of the pillars that support the Heaven, became a 
mountain of Libya. It is remarkable, however, that in all the forms 
which the fable assumes, it is the god or man Atlas who is turned into, 
or gives name to the mountain. Thus, according to one mythologist, 
Atlas was a king of the remotest west, rich in flocks and herds, and 
master of the trees that bore the golden apples. An ancient pro- 
phecy delivered by Themis, had announced to him, that his precious 
trees would be plundered by a son of Jupiter. When therefore Per- 
seus, on his return from slaying the Gorgon, arrived in the realms of 
Atlas, and seeking hospitality, announced himself to be a son of the 
king of the gods, the western monarch, calling to mind the prophecy, 
attempted to repel him from his doors. Perseus, inferior in strength, 
displayed the head of Medusa, and the inhospitable monarch was 
turned into the mountain which still bears his name. 

According to another account, Atlas was a man of Libya, devoted 
to astronomy. Having ascended a lofty mountain, for the purpose of 
making observations, he fell into the sea, and both sea and mountain 
were named after him. His supporting the heavens was usually ex- 
plained by making him an astronomer and the inventor of the sphere. 

There is also another curious legend relating to Atlas, which forms 
part of the fables connected with the adventures of Hercules. W hen 
this hero in quest of the apples of the Hesperides, had come to the 
spot where Prometheus lay chained, moved by his entreaties, he shot 
the eagle that preyed upon his liver. Prometheus out of gratitude 
warned him not to go himself to take the golden apples, but to send 
Atlas for them, and in the mean time to support the Heaven in his 
stead. The hero did as desired, and at his request Atlas went to the 
Hesperides and obtained three apples from them ; he then proposed to 
take them himself to Eurystheus, while Hercules remained to support 
u *ne sky. At the suggestion of Prometheus, the hero feigned consent, 
but begged him to take hold of the heavens till he made a pad to put 



PROMETHEUS AND EPIMETHEUS. 97 

upon his head. Atlas threw down the apples and resumed his burden, 
and Hercules picked them up and went his way. 

Various elucidations of the legend of Atlas have been given by the 
modern expounders of mythology. The best is that of Vollker. This 
writer, taking into consideration the meaning of his name, in connec- 
tion with the position assigned him by Homer and Hesiod, and the 
species of knowledge ascribed to him, and also his being the father of 
two constellations, regards Atlas as a personification of navigation; 
the conquest of the sea by human skill, trade, and mercantile profit 

PROMETHEUS AND EPIMETHEUS. 

The origin of men in these fictions is so subordinate, that they are 
represented as not even owing their existence to the reigning gods, but 
to a descendant of the Titans. Prometheus, a son of Iapetos, is said 
to have formed the first man out of clay. His three brothers, Atlas, 
Menoetius, and Epimetheus, were, as well as himself, hated by the 
gods. Iapetos, their father, was at the same time with the other Titans 
thrown into Tartarus. His powerful son, Menoetius, on account of his 
dangerous strength and haughty pride, was killed by Jupiter's light- 
nings ; upon the shoulders of Atlas, Jupiter laid the whole burden of 
the weight of the skies ; Prometheus was by his direction fastened to 
a rock, where a vulture perpetually gnawed at his liver ; and Epime- 
theus was destined to bring woe and misery upon mankind. Thus 
odious to the gods was the family of Iapetos, from which man took his 
origin, and on whom all immeasurable sufferings were afterwards 
heaped together, by which he was made to atone for his grudged exist- 
ence. 

According to ancient fable, the formation of man was accomplished 
in the following manner : — Prometheus took a piece of earth, a portion 
of clay still impregnated with divine particles, moistened it with water, 
and formed man after the image of the gods ; so that he alone raises 
his look to heaven, while all other creatures bend their eyes to the 
ground. This representation shows that Fancy could not ascribe even 
to the gods, a form superior to that of man, for there is, in universal 
nature (and nature is Fancy's great magazine), no being deserving this 
preference. The beams of the sun give light, but man sees ; the thun- 
der rolls and the waves of the sea roar, but the tongue of man niters 
distinct and intelligible sounds ; the moon and stars glitter in light 

7 



98 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MY7H0L0GY. 

and beauty, but the human countenance is indicative of a superior 
illumination. 

When Prometheus had succeeded in representing the divine form, 
he burned with desire to bring his work to perfection. He rose there- 
fore to the chariot of Phoebus, in order to kindle the torch, from the 
lire of which he blew ethereal flames into the breasts of his creatures — 
thus giving them warmth and life. But the wrath of Jupiter was 
kindled against him, as a creator of divine formations, and he deter- 
mined on the destruction of mankind. Prometheus, having sacrificed 
two bulls, wrapped the meat in one hide and the bones in the other, 
and then,- in order to try Jupiter, asked him which he would prefer as 
an offering. Jupiter designedly chose the worse part, that he might 
have a plausible pretext for anger against Prometheus, and of perse- 
cuting his creatures, and immediately deprived them of fire. He durst 
not give vent to his hatred against Prometheus himself. His first 
object was, to destroy his work ; but in this he did not succeed. The 
noble son of Earth ascended a second time to the chariot of the sun, 
and again brought down the ethereal spark, hiding it in the stem of a 
reed. But when from afar, Jupiter descried the light of fire upon the 
earth, he formed the design of punishing men through their own folly. 
He therefore requested Vulcan to make a woman of clay, which he 
intended sending to Prometheus for a wife ; he directed him to knead 
earth and water till it assumed the form of a virgin, like the immortal 
goddesses, and then to give it human voice and strength. Jupiter also 
desired Minerva to endow her with artist-knowledge, Yenus to give 
her beauty, and Mercury to inspire her with an impudent and artful 
disposition. When formed, she was attired by the Seasons and Graces, 
and each of the deities having bestowed upon her the desired gifts, 
she was called Pandora {All-gifted). 

Jupiter then gave her a beautiful box which she was ordered to 
present to the man who married her ; and by the commission of the 
god, Mercury conducted her to Prometheus. In the box was enclosed 
the whole train of evils that threaten mankind. Prometheus, aware 
of the fraud, rejected the dangerous gift, and sent Pandora away with- 
out suffering himself to be captivated by her charms. 

He continued to teach men every useful art, for which the employ- 
ment of fire is necessary, and which was the greatest of his benefits ; 
but deprived them of the view into futurity, lest they should anticipate 
unavoidable evils. Thus, notwithstanding the efforts of Jupiter, he 



PROMETHEUS AND EPIMETHEUS. 99 

went oh to perfect the creation and formation of mankind, although 
well aware that he must atone for it in a horrible manner. 

Jupiter, still more enraged by the failure of his cunning attempt, 
and burning with the desire of revenging himself upon Prometheus, 
now ordered him to be fastened to a rock, on Mount Caucasus, where 
a vulture fed all day upon his liver, which, growing again during the 
night, continued to be the means of his torments. 

Meanwhile, the misfortunes appointed to men came upon them, in 
spite of the prudence of Prometheus. The inconsiderate Epimetheus, 
although warned by his brother, suffered himself to be captivated by 
the charms of Pandora ; who, after he had married her, opened the 
pernicious box out of which all imaginable evils spread themselves 
over the whole earth, inflicting misery upon mankind. Pandora, per- 
ceiving the pernicious contents of the box. immediately closed it again. 
But, alas! it was too late. The evils had all escaped, and nothing 
remained in the box but Hope ; who, according to Jupiter's decree, 
should in due time afford some consolation to mortals. And she alone 
has the wonderful power of easing the labors of man, and rendering 
the troubles and sorrows of life less painful. 

Prometheus is represented as feeling deeply the sufferings of man- 
kind. He may be considered as the never-ceasing disquietude, the 
restless, never satisfied desire of mortals ; for the liver upon which the 
vulture preys never dies, and the liver was thought by the ancients to 
be the seat of desire. His inventive genius introduced fire, and the 
arts which result from it ; and man, henceforth, became a prey to care 
and anxiety, the love of gain and other evil passions which torment 
him, and which are personified in the eagle that fed on the inconsuma- 
ble liver of Prometheus. 

According to the fable, the pains of Prometheus lasted until a mor- 
tal by his valor and invincible courage made himself a path to immor- 
tality, and thus, as it were, reconciled Jupiter to mankind. Hercules, 
son of Jupiter and Alcmene, killed the vulture with his father's con- 
sent, and delivered the sufferer from his long torments. As the mor- 
tal foe of the Titans, and the unrelenting persecutor of Prometheus, 
Jupiter strove to ruin the race of men. But as the quiet power that 
is superior to its, own wrath, and in concord with fate, he at last calmly 
beheld the rising of new generations, that by sufferings, strength, and 
perseverance, became assimilated to the gods themselves. 



100 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

The story of Pandora's box is of a more recent date than that given 
by Hesiod. The elder fable is as follows : There was a chest or large 
box in the house of Epimetheus, which an oracle had forbidden to be 
opened. Pandora, full of curiosity, lifted the fatal lid, and immediately 
all kinds of evils issued forth, and spread themselves over the earth. 
The terrified female at length gained sufficient presence of mind to 
close the lid, and Hope thereupon was alone secured. 

An attempt has been made to trace an analogy between this more 
ancient tradition, and the account of the fall of our first parents, as 
detailed by the inspired penman. Prometheus (or Forethought) is 
supposed to denote the purity and wisdom of our early progenitor, 
before he yielded to temptation ; Epimetheus (or Afterthought), to be 
indicative of his change of resolution, and his yielding to the argu- 
ments of Eve ; which the poet expresses by saying that Epimetheus 
received Pandora, after he had been cautioned by Prometheus not to 
do so. The curiosity of Pandora violated, it is said, the positive in- 
junction about not opening the jar, just as our first parent, Eve, disre- 
garded the commands of her Maker respecting the tree of knowledge. 
Pandora, moreover, the author of all human woes, is, as the advocates 
for this analogy assert, the author likewise of their chief, and in fact, 
only solace ; for she closed the lid of the fatal jar before Hope could 
ascape ; and this she did, according to Hesiod, in compliance with the 
will of Jove. May not Hope, they ask, thus secured, be that hope and 
expectation of a Redeemer, which has been traditional from the earliest 
ages of the world ? Even so our first parents committed the fatal sin 
of disobedience, but from the seed of the woman who was the first to 
offend, was to spring one who was to be the hope and the only solace 
of our race. 

All this is extremely ingenious ; but unfortunately, not at all borne 
out by the words of the poet from whom the legend is obtained. The 
jar contains various evils ; as long as it remains closed, man is free 
from their influence, for they are closely confined within their prison 
house. When the lid or top is raised, these evils fly forth among men, 
and Hope alone remains behind, the lid being shut down before she 
could escape. Here then we have man exposed to suffering and calam- 
ity, and no hope afforded him of a better lot, for Hope is imprisoned in 
the jar, and has not been allowed to come forth and exercise her influ- 
ence in the world. Again, how did Hope ever find admission into the 
jar 1 Was it placed there as a kindred evil ? It surely then could 



PROMETHEUS AND EPIMETHEUS. 101 

have nothing to do with the promise of a kindred Redeemer. Or was 
it placed in the jar to lure man to the commission of evil, by constant 
ly exciting dissatisfaction with the present, and a hope of something 
better in the future ? This, however, is not hope, but discontent. Yet 
the poet would actually seem to have regarded Hope as no better than 
an evil, since, after stating that the exit of Hope from the jar was ar- 
rested by the closing of the lid, he adds, "but countless other woes 
wander among men." It is much more rational, then, to regard the 
whole legend as an ebullition of that spleen against the female sex 
occasionally exhibited by the Grecian poets. The resemblance it bears 
to the Scripture account is very unsatisfactory. Eve was tempted ; 
Pandora was not ; the former was actuated by a noble instinct, the love 
of knowledge ; the latter, by mere female curiosity. 

It seems very strange that the ancients should have taken so little 
notice of this myth. There is no allusion to it in Pindar or the trage- 
dians, excepting Sophocles, one of whose lost satiric dramas was named 
" Pandora, or the Hammerers." It was equally neglected by the 
Alexandrians, and seems to have had as little charm for the Latin poets, 
even Ovid passing over it in silence. 

It is deserving of notice, that Hesiod and all the others agree in 
naming the vessel which Pandora opened a jar, and never hint at her 
having brought it with her to the house of Epimetheus. Yet the idea 
has been universal among the moderns, that she brought all the evils 
from Heaven with her shut up in a box. The only way of accounting 
for this is, that at the restoration of learning, the narrative in Hesiod 
was misunderstood. 

In grateful remembrance of Prometheus, the Athenians celebrated a 
festival, which was emblematic of the transitory and rapid course of 
human life. At some distance from the city of Athens stood an altar, 
dedicated to Prometheus, from which the young Athenians ran a race 
with lighted torches. He who first gained the mark with his torch 
still burning, obtained the prize. If all the torches happened to be 
extinguished before reaching the mark, no prize was given. 

Prometheus is generally represented upon ancient works of art, as 
an artist engaged in his professional employment, with a vase standing 
at his feet, and before him a human bust, on which he seems to bestow 
the most intense study, in order to bring it to perfection. He is also 
represented as sitting with a torch in his hand, over which a butterfly 



102 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

is hovering, to denote the animating breath by which the dead mass is 
enlivened. 

In the vestibule of the Museum of Antiques at Paris, is a modern 
picture of Prometheus, where he is represented as protected by Miner- 
va, who covers him with her iEgis, and holds the laurel wreath, the 
recompense of genius, while he touches with the divine flame the man 
of his own creation, who becomes animated, and appears astonished at 
his own existence. At the sight of the first mortal being, Time begins 
his course, the Fates draw the web of human life — and Atropos, one 
of them, prepares the fatal scissors destined to terminate it. Above 
Time, Poetry is preparing to celebrate the glory of this event, and 
closely united, appear Painting and Sculpture, ready to consecrate 
him by their works. 

OGYGES. DEUCALION. 

After Prometheus retreats from the theatre and transactions of the 
world, those who take his place in the great cause of humanity, the 
new fathers of mankind, by whose assistance they rise as it were from 
oblivion, are Deucalion, Ogyges, Cecrops, and Inachos. 

During the time of Ogyges, son of Terra, a deluge occurred which 
is anterior to that of Deucalion. The horizon of all history is closed 
by this Ogygian flood, and even the wide field of fable here finds its 
limits. 

Ogyges reigned in Bceotia, which from him is sometimes called Ogy- 
gia ; his power was also extended over Attica. It is supposed that he 
was of Egyptian or Phoenician extraction, but his origin as well as the 
age in which he lived, and the duration of his reign are so obscure and 
unknown, that the epithet Ogygian is often applied to any thing of 
dark antiquity. 

The Greek legend respecting the deluge of Deucalion is as follows: — 
Deucalion, son of Prometheus and Clymene, was married to Pyrrha, 
daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora. When Jupiter designed to 
destroy the brazen race of men on account of their impiety, Deucalion, 
by the advice of his father, made himself an ark, and putting provisions 
into it, entered it with his wife Pyrrha. Jupiter then poured rain 
from Heaven, and inundated a greater part of Greece, so that the peo- 
ple, except a few who escaped to the lofty mountains, perished in the 
waves. At the same time, the floods burst through the mountains of 
Thessaly, and all Greece without the Isthmus, as well as the Pelopon- 



OGYGES. DEUCALION. 10& 

nesus, was overflowed. Deucalion was carried along the sea in his ark 
for nine days and nights, until he reached mount Parnassus. By this 
time the rain had ceased ; and leaving his ark, he sacrificed to Jupiter 
who sent Mercury desiring him to ask what he would. His request 
was, to have the earth replenished with men. Thereupon, by the direc- 
tion of Jupiter, he and his wife threw stones behind them, and those 
which Deucalion threw became men, and those thrown by Pyrrha, 
women. 

Various opinions, as may well be supposed, have been entertained 
by modern writers in regard to the deluge of Deucalion. We give 
that of Cuvier. ^As to Deucalion," observes the learned French 
naturalist, " whether this prince be regarded as a real or fictitious per- 
sonage, however little we enter into the manner in which his deluge 
has been introduced into the poems of the Greeks, and the various 
details with which it necessarily becomes enriched, we perceive that it 
is nothing else than a tradition of the great cataclysm, altered and 
placed by the Hellenes in the period which they also assigned to Deu- 
calion ; because he was regarded as the founder of their nation ; and 
because his history is confounded with that of all the chiefs of the 
renewed nations." 

Neither Homer nor Hesiod knew any thing of the deluge of Deuca- 
lion, any more than that of Ogyges. The first author whose works 
are extant, by whom mention is made of the former, is Pindar. He 
speaks of Deucalion as landing upon Parnassus, establishing himself 
in the city of Protogeneia (first growth or birth), and recreating his 
people from stones. In a word, he relates (but confining it to a single 
nation only) the fable afterwards generalized by Ovid, and applied to the 
whole human race. 

The first historians who wrote after Pindar, namely, Herodotus, 
Thucydides, and Xenophon, make no mention of any deluge, whether 
of the time of Ogyges or that of Deucalion, although they speak of the 
latter as one of the first kings of the Hellenes. Plato, in his Timseus, 
says only a few words of the deluge, as well as of Deucalion and Pyrrha, 
in order to commence the recital of the great catastrophe, which, accord- 
ing to the priests of Sais, destroyed the Atlantis ; but in these few 
words, he speaks of the deluge in the singular number, as if it had 
been the only one. He places the name of Deucalion immediately after 
that of Phoroneus, the first of the human race, without making any 
mention of Ogyges. Thus with him, it is still a general event, a true 



104 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

universal deluge, and the only one which had happened. He regards 
it, therefore, as identical with that of Ogyges. 

Each of the different colonies of Greece, that had preserved isolated 
traditions, commenced them with a particular deluge of its own, because 
some remembrance of the deluge common to all the nations, was pre- 
served among each of the tribes ; and when it was afterwards attempted 
to reduce these various traditions to a common chronology, different 
events were imagined to have been recorded, from the circumstance 
that dates, in reality uncertain, or perhaps altogether false, although 
considered authentic in the countries in which they originated, were 
not found to agree with each other. Thus in the, same manner that 
the Hellenes had a deluge of Deucalion, because they regarded him as 
the founder of their nation, the Autocthenes of Attica had one of 
Ogyges, because it was with him that their history commenced. The 
Pelasgi of Arcadia had that, which, according to later authors, com- 
pelled Dardanus to retire towards the Hellespont. The island of 
Samothrace, one of those in which a succession of priests had been 
more anciently established, together with a regular worship and con- 
nected traditions, had also a deluge, which passed for the most ancient 
of all, and which was attributed to the bursting of the Bosphorus and 
Hellespont. 

Some idea of a similar event was preserved in Asia Minor, and in 
Syria ; and to this the Greeks would afterwards naturally attach the 
name of Deucalion. Arnobius even speaks of a rock in Phrygia from 
which it was pretended that Deucalion and Pyrrha had taken stones ; 
but none of these traditions assign a very remote antiquity to this 
cataclysm ; and there is none which does not admit of explanation, in 
so far as its date and other circumstances are concerned, from the vari- 
ations to which narratives that are not fixed by writing must be con- 
tinually liable. 

Although Deucalion is called the renewer of the destroyed family 
of Prometheus, yet we see that other traditions, still more ancient, are 
connected with the fictions respecting him, and that they confine Deu- 
calion's new creation., or formation of men, to a part of Greece. 

Amphictyon, a son of Deucalion, first established a sacred association 
among the several tribes of Greece, who, by means of common consulta- 
tions, were so closely united together as to form one nation. This 
sacred institution was called after the name of its founder, the Amphic 
tyonic council. 



KRONOS OR SATURN. 105 



Hellen, Deucalion's second son, from whose name the Greeks are 
called Hellenes, reigned in Thessaly, and was the father of Eolus, who 
became the ancestor of many heroes. The most renowned among them 
are Meleager, Bellerophon, and Iasion. Meleager killed the Caledonian 
boar, Bellerophon vanquished the monster Chimsera, and Iasion won 
the golden fleece. 

These were considered as the most ancient of men, who existed before 
any other, and whose origin commenced beyond any record, a circum- 
stance which fiction expressed in these words : " They were, ere the 
moon was." With this people, to s o, the original simplicity and inno- 
cence of manners degenerated into vice and depravity to such a degree, 
that Jupiter continued to hurl his thunderbolts upon the land of Ar- 
cadia, till at last even Earth stretched out her arms imploring mercy. 

KRONOS OR SATURN. 

Kronos ( Time) was the youngest of the Titans, and as the heav- 
ens measure out time to us, and earth is considered its beginning, he is 
said to be born of Uranos and Ge. 

According to ancient fable, Kronos is married to Rhea (or Succession), 
and with them commence a new generation of gods, by whom the for- 
mer, in future times, are to be deprived of their power. Lasting forms 
now gain the superiority ; yet not without a long struggle against all- 
devouring Chaos, and all-destroying Time, of which Saturn himself is 
a symbol. He creates and destroys ; therefore it is allegorically said, 
that he devours his own children, and even the stones, because he con- 
sumes the most durable substances 

Fable says, that his mother, Earth, had predicted to him that one 
of his sons would deprive him of his authority, and therefore he swal- 
lowed his own children as soon as they were born. Thus the crime 
which he had committed against his father was revenged. For as 
Uranos formerly dreaded, so Kronos now dreads seditious power. And 
while he reigned over his brothers, the Titans, he, in the same manner 
as his father had done, keeps the hundred armed giants and Cyclopes 
imprisoned in Tartaros. He fears ruin from his own children. The 
new-born creatures still rise against the source of creation that threatens 
to swallow them up again. Even as Ge formerly groaned on account 
of her children's imprisonment, so Rhea now laments the cruelty of 
her husband — the all-destroying power that spares not his own .crea- 
tions. When, therefore, the time came in which she was to become 



106 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

the mother of Jupiter, the future ruler of gods and men, she implored 
Earth and the starry Heave^, for the preservation of her child. But 
the ancient primitive deities were deprived of government, and the 
only influence left them was in prophecies and counsel. The suppli- 
cated parents, therefore, advised their daughter to conceal her son as 
soon as it should be born, in a fertile part of the island of Crete. 

Wild, roving Fancy, now fixing herself upon a certain spot of the 
earth, finds on this island, where the divine child is to be reared, her 
first resting-place. 

By the advice of her mother, Rhea presented a stone to Kronos, 
instead of her new-born child. The stratagem was successful ; and by 
means of this stone so often mentioned by the ancients, bounds were 
set to destruction ; the destroying power had, for the first time, taken 
death instead of life ; and thus the latter gained time to rise, secretly, 
as it were, to light, in order to form and unfold itself. But it is not 
yet secure from the persecutions springing from the very source whence 
it derives its origin. Therefore the tutors of the child, the Curetes, 
whose nature as well as origin are enveloped in mysterious darkness, 
make a continual noise with their shields and spears, lest Kronos 
should hear the noise of the crying infant. 

The education of Jupiter on the isiand of Crete forms one of the 
most attractive fictions of the imagination. 

The goat Amalthea, which was afterwards placed among the stars, 
and whose horn became the symbol of plenty, suckles him with her 
milk. Doves bring him nourishment : golden-colored bees carry him 
honey ; and the nymphs of the wood are his nurses. The physical, as 
well as intellectual powers of this future king of the gods and men, 
rapidly develope themselves. The old realm of Kronos approaches its 
end ; — and, in addition to Jupiter, five more of his children are saved 
from destruction : viz. Vesta, Ceres, Neptune, Juno and Pluto. 

United with them, Jupiter, after having delivered the Cyclopes out 
of prison, and received from them the thunderbolts, declares war against 
Kronos and the Titans. And now the modern gods, the descendants 
of Kronos and Rhea, separate themselves from the ancient deities or 
Titans, the children of Uranos and G-e. 

The golden years of mortal men were placed by Fancy in those 
times when Jupiter did not yet rule with his thunder ; under the reign 
of Saturn, imagination collected together all that is desirable to man, 
but gone to return no more. 



KRONOS OR SATURN. 107 



After having been deprived of his destructive power, Saturn escaped 
the fate of the other Titans, and 

" Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields. 

There, in the plains of Latium, surrounded by high mountains, he con- 
cealed himself, and transferred thither the golden age, that happy 
period, when mankind lived in a state of perfect equality and all things 
were in common. He is said to have arrived in a ship at the Tiber, in 
the dominions of Janus, and in union with him to have reigned over 
men with wisdom and benignity. 

This fiction is extremely beautiful and attractive, because of the 
unexpected transition from war and destruction, to peace and the quiet 
exercise of justice and benevolence. While Jupiter, still in danger of 
being deprived of his usurped authority, is hurling thunderbolts against 
his foes, Saturn, far from the scene of violence, has arrived in the quiet 
fields of Latium, where, under his reign, those happy times pass away 
which are celebrated in song, as a good that is passed and gone, and 
now sought for in vain. 

Saturn's time was the grey time of yore ; he swallowed his own chil- 
dren, buried in oblivion the fleeting years, and left no trace of bloody 
wars, destroyed cities, and crushed nations, which constitute the chief 
subjects of history ever since men began to record' the events of the 
world. All that happy time, when liberty and equality, justice and 
virtue, were still reigning, men lived like the gods in perfect security, 
without pains and cares, and exempt from the burdens of old age. The 
soil of the earth gave them fruits without laborious cultivation ; unac- 
quainted with sickness, they died away as if overtaken with sweet slum- 
ber ; and when the lap of earth received their dust, the souls of the 
deceased, enveloped in light air, remained as genii with the survivors. 

In this manner the poets portray those golden times on which ima- 
gination, wearied with the scenes of the busy world, dwells with so much 
delight. 

Saturnalia were festivals celebrated in honor of Saturn, and were 
instituted long before the foundation of Rome, in commemoration of 
the freedom and equality that existed among the inhabitants of the 
earth during the golden reign of Saturn. 

This festival was celebrated in December, and at first lasted but one 
day (the 19th) ; it was then extended to three, and subsequently, by 



108 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

order of Caligula and Claudius, to seven. This celebration was remark- 
able for the liberty that universally prevailed during its continuance. 
Servants were then allowed freedom with their masters ; slaves were 
at liberty to be unruly without fear of punishment; and until the 
expiration of the festival, wore a cap on the head as a badge of freedom 
and equality. Animosity ceased : no criminals were executed ; nor was 
war ever declared during the Saturnalia, but every thing gave way to 
mirth and merriment. Schools were closed ; the senate did not sit ; 
and friends made presents to each other. It was also the custom to 
send wax tapers to friends as an expression of good feeling ; for the 
Romans, as a particular respect to this deity, kept torches and tapers 
continually burning upon his altars. 

Among the Romans, the priest always performed the sacrifices with 
his head uncovered, a custom never observed before any other god. 

On his statues were generally hung fetters, in commemoration of the 
chains he had worn when imprisoned by Jupiter. From this circum- 
stance, slaves who obtained their liberty, generally dedicated their 
fetters to him. During the celebration of the Saturnalia, the chains 
were taken from the statues, to intimate the freedom and independence 
that mankind enjoyed during the golden age. 

In his temple, and under his protection, the Romans placed their 
treasury, and also laid up the rolls containing the names of their 
people, because, in his time, no one was defrauded, and no theft was 
ever committed. 

Saturn is generally represented by the ancients, as an old man, bent 
with age and infirmity ; he holds the sickle or scythe given him by his 
mother, and a serpent biting its own tail, which is an emblem of time 
and the revolution of the year : sometimes, he is leaning on his sickle 
and clothed in tattered garments ; to these were added wings, and feet 
of wool, to express his fleet and silent course. Upon ancient gems, he 
is sometimes represented with a scythe in his hand, and leaning on the 
prow of a ship, on the side of which rises part of an edifice and a wall. 
This is probably in allusion to Saturn's having built the old city of 
Saturnia, near the Tiber, on the hills where Rome was afterwards 
founded. In this manner, Saturn sometimes appears as a symbol of 
all-destroying time, and sometimes, as a king who once reigned in 
Latium. 



KRONOS OR SATURN. 109 



In the representations of the ancient deities, the imagination of the 
poet plays with grand images only. Its objects are the great specta- 
cles which nature exhibits — the sky and the earth, the sea and the 
seditious elements, represented under the images of the Titans, the 
beaming sun and the shining moon ; all which objects, being endowed 
with personality by a few striking features, afford better materials for 
poetry than for plastic art. 

Out of the mist which envelopes these beings the more modern 
divine appearances spring forth in clear light, and distinct forms. Now, 
we behold Jove, the mighty god of thunder, with the eagle at his feet ; 
Neptune, the .shaker of the earth, with his trident ; the majestic Juno, 
accompanied with her peacock ; Apollo in eternal youth, with his silver 
bow ; the blue-eyed Minerva, with helmet and spear ; the chaste Diana, 
with her bow and arrow ; Mars, the god of war ; and Mercury, the 
swift messenger of the divinities ; by means of plastic art, these modern 
deities gain distinct forms, and their individual power and majesty thus 
embodied, and placed in temples and sacred groves, became to mortals 
an object of religious veneration and worship. 

But the pristine deities were, in a certain respect, the models for 
the modern. Fancy merely caused the sublime objects of religious 
veneration that already existed, to be regenerated in a new and youth- 
ful form ; ascribing to them descent, name, and native place, in order 
to unite them more intimately with the ideas and fates of mortals. But 
in the productions of Fancy, she does not bind herself to a certain and 
fixed series of beings, therefore we sometimes find the same deity under 
different forms. For the ideas of divine, supernatural power always 
existed ; but in the course of time, they became so blended with stories 
of human life, that in the magic mirror of the dark ages of antiquity, 
almost all divine images are repeated as in a magnifying reflector ; in 
this contexture of several fables, the imagination found more ample 
scope ; a circumstance by which the poets of all ages did not fail to 
profit. 

Henceforth the history of the gods is mingled with that of men. 
The wars among the former having ceased, there is now nothing worthy 
their attention but the lives and fates of mortals, with which they 
seem to trifle ; arbitrarily exalting the one, and depressing the other, 
yet at the same time assisting heroes of eminent virtue and valor, and 
raising them to immortality. 



PART SECOND. 



MODERN, SUPERIOR DEITIES. 




JUPITER. 



MODERN, SUPERIOR DEITIES 



ZEUS AND HERA; 



JUPITER AND JUNO. 

Hesiod, in his Theogonia, invokes the Muses who inhabit the heav- 
enly mansions, and whose knowledge of generation and birth he had 
formerly sung. 

" Tell, ye celestial powers," continues the poet, " how first the gods 
and world were made ; the rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging 
surge. Also, the bright, shining stars, and wide stretched heaven 
above, and all the gods that sprang from them, givers of good things ?" 

The Muses answer, " First of all existed Chaos ; next in order the 
broad-bosomed Earth ; then Love appeared, the most beautiful of im- 
mortals. From Chaos, sprang Erebus and dusky Night, and from 
Night and Erebus, came Ether and smiling Day. 

" But first the Earth produced the starry Heavens, commensurate 
to herself; and the barren Sea, without mutual love. Then, conjoined 
with Uranos, she produced the tremendous Titans ; after whom, Time, 
crooked in counsel, was produced, the youngest, and most dreadful of 
her children. The Cyclops were next engendered ; Brontes, Steropes, 
and Arges, and besides these, three other rueful sons were born to 
Heaven and Earth, Cottus, Briareus, and G-yes, with fifty heads and a 
hundred hands ; haughty, hateful, and at enmity with their father from 
the day of their birth — for which cause, as soon as they appeared, he 
hid them in the grottoes and caves of the Earth, and never permitted 
them to see the light. Meanwhile, Oceanos married to Tethys, the 
eldest of the Titans, produced the rivers and fountains, with three 
thousand daughters, properties and productions of moisture. Heaven's 
usurping son. Time, marrying the second sister, Rhea, had three female 

8 



114 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

children, Yesta, Ceres, and Juno, and as many males : Pluto, Neptune, 
and designing Jove, Father of gods and men. 

" No sooner was this sovereign source of light brought forth, that is, 
disembarrassed of heterogeneous parts, than he seized the reins of the 
universe, that under him at last assumed a stable form. For associa- 
ting with Metis (counsel, contrivance, thought), by her supreme direc- 
tion he brought his inhuman parent's progeny to light, and settled his 
congenial powers, each in their respective dignity ; Ceres to fructify 
the Earth ; Juno to impregnate the air ; Neptune to rule the sea ; and 
Pluto to reign in the regions below ; while Saturn's first-born, Yesta, 
remained unmoved, the coercive band of the immense machine. 

" But in this settlement he met with cruel opposition. The Titan 
gods (properties of matter) combined against him, and in a long and 
furious war endeavored to drive him from the throne of Heaven, and 
reverse the recent dignities of the upstart Saturnian race. And now, 
the mighty frame had fallen into pristine Chaos, if, prompted by his 
all-wise associate, he had not first made his kindred gods partakers 
with himself of Nectar and Ambrosia (incense and immortality), and 
then released from darksome durance, the predominant igneous pow- 
ers, sons of Heaven and Earth, Cottus, Briareus, and G-yes, whom he 
called up to light and made his allies in the war. By their irresistible 
strength, he at last vanquished the Titan gods, and confined them fast- 
bound in a prison waste and wild, as far under the Earth as Heaven is 
above it ; a bulwark of brass, with three-fold night brooding over it, 
and its gates of adamant guarded by three enormous brothers, jailors 
of Almighty Jove." 

Here are the seeds of all things, the roots of the opaque Earth, the 
barren sea, and the beginnings and bounds of the various orders of 
beings, all now shut up by the will of Jove, in the bottomless chasm, 
where darkness reigns and tempests howl, tremendous to the gods 
themselves. And Fable says, that things continued in this state until 
Honor and Reverence begot Majesty, who filled Heaven and Earth 
the day she was born ; Awe and Dread sat down by her, and all three 
being defended by Jove's thunders from the attacks of the Titans, 
have ever since remained by the side of this god, who now rules su- 
preme, having rightly arranged all the immortals, and allotted to each 
their respective dignity. 

But after having subdued his greatest adversaries, new dangers 
arose to Jupiter from his own resolutions. He married Metis, daugh- 



ZEUS OR JUPITER. 115 



ter of Oceanos ; and it was predicted by an oracle, that she would have 
a son who should be endowed with his mother's strength and his fa- 
ther's wisdom, and rule over all the gods. To prevent this, Jupiter, 
with flattering allurements, drew Metis over into his own person, and 
soon after brought forth Minerva, who, as a full-grown virgin in com- 
plete panoply, sprang from his head. 

A similar danger threatened him when he wished to marry Thetis, 
who, according to another oracle, would have a son who should be more 
powerful than his father. 

In this manner these fictions represent that a mighty being always 
dreads a still mightier ; for with the idea of unlimited power, every 
fiction ceases, Fancy having no farther scope. But to have a just 
conception of Jove, let us first recollect Zeno's definition of nature — 
that it is a plastic fire ever generating by rule ; and then obey the 
most philosophical of all poets, when he bids us 

" Look up, and view the immense expanse of Heaven, 
The boundless Ether in his genial arms 
Clasping the Earth. Him call thou 
God and Jove." 

We can judge of the propriety of his claim to dominion upon read- 
ing what Zeno considers one of the highest steps in the scale of crea- 
tion. " Ether," says he, " or pure invisible fire, the most subtle and 
elastic of all bodies, seems to pervade and expand itself throughout the 
universe. If air is the immediate agent or instrument in the produc- 
tions of nature, the pure, invisible fire is the first natural mover or 
spring whence the air derives its power. This mighty agent is every 
where at hand, ready to break forth into action, actuating and enliven- 
ing the whole visible mass, equally fitted to produce or to destroy ; 
distinguishing the various stages of nature, keeping up the perpetual 
round of generation and corruption, pregnant with forms which it 
constantly sends forth and resorbs — so quick in its motion, so exten- 
sive in its effects, that it seems no other than the vegetative soul, or 
vital power of the world. This, then, is the true Zeus ; the source of 
generation and principle of life — that heavenly, ethereal, that is, ig- 
neous nature, which spontaneously begets aril things, the supposed 
parent of gods and men ; and Fancy finding nothing in nature more 
pure and sublime than the Earth surrounding ether and sky, it was 
chosen by her as the archetype of the chief deity. 1 ' 

And what was his Hera ? " The air," says the same author, " is the 



116 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

receptacle as well as source of all sublunary fcrras — the great mass or 
Chaos which imparts or receives them. The atmosphere that surrounds 
our earth contains a mixture of all the active, volatile parts of all vege- 
tables, minerals, fossils, and animals. Whatever corrupts or exhales, 
being acted on by solar heat produces within itself all sorts of chemical 
productions, dispersing again their salts and spirits in new generations. 
The air, therefore, is an active mass of numberless different principles ; 
the general source of corruption and generation in which the seeds of 
all things seem to lie latent, ready to appear and produce their kind 
whenever they shall light on a proper matrix. The whole atmosphere 
seems alive, — there is every where acid to corrode and seed to engender 
in this common receptacle of all vivifying principles ; and here is the 
foundation of the marriage made by the poets between these kindred 
gods. And when we consider at what season of the year the air is 
impregnated with ethereal seed, when it is that all nature teems with 
life, we shall not wonder at the cuckoo's being the bird of Hera carved 
on the top of her sceptre at Argos, or at Zeus transforming himself 
into the spring's genial messenger when he first enjoyed his queen. 

Truth once lighted up shines on every thing around it, and the same 
thread of reflection will guide us through the labyrinth of a greater 
mystery ; for this matron goddess and patroness of marriage, became 
once a year a pure, unspotted virgin, upon bathing herself in a sacred 
fountain in the Argive territory.' 1 

As the powerful and majestic goddess, Hera typifies the quick and 
rapidly moving energies of the productive principle that clothes the 
earth in the majestic garb of loveliness and beauty — and as the repel- 
ling and unattractive wife of Zeus, she typifies the cold frowns and 
chilling frosts of winter. Hence the physical allegories of their jea- 
lousies and quarrels. 

Hera's chief archetype was the atmosphere which encompasses the 
earth, adhering in conjugal union to the ether that rests upon it; and 
this fiction of the marriage of Zeus and Hera is a representation of 
Fancy according to human notions and human relations ; ridiculous, 
indeed, unless beheld with the poetical eye of imagination, that forms 
her gods after the images of men, and her men after the images of the 
gods. And here let us not pass an unjust judgment on times of old. 
Antiquity is not to be viewed and explained according to the ideas 
and customs of modern times, any more than the plays of childhood 
by the earnest pursuits of maturer life, or the follies of youth by the 



ZEUS OR JUPITER. 117 






graver wisdom of old age. While we live, as it were, in the age of 
reason, the ancients lived in that of imagination ; and the infinite and 
unlimited being to Fancy a melancholy object, she gave life and ani- 
mation to things formed and limited, in order to use them as models 
of her own creation. Therefore, to the boundless mass which sur- 
rounds man, the sky, earth, and sea, the ancients gave form and per- 
sonality. They endeavored to unite the beauty and grace of formed 
objects, with the strength of the unformed and shapeless ; and as in 
the tall and erect body of man the solidity of the oak is joined to the 
pliancy of the sapling, so their creative genius connected the power of 
the raging elements, and the majesty of the rolling thunder, with the 
majestic form, the eloquent lips, the frowning brows, and the speaking 
eye of man. And thus is formed the image of Jupiter Olympius ; 
that being to whose hands imagination intrusted so much power, must 
be in harmony with the human form ; because the capacity for thought 
could only be indicated in the expressive features of the human face, 
and the power to rule and reign could be represented only in the ma- 
jestic form of man. And yet the god must be the superior ; and to 
such a degree rose this power of embodying high conceptions in the 
art of the Greeks, inspired and consecrated as it was by its subjects, 
that they exhibited works similar indeed, but far superior to their 
models : for while excluding from their productions every thing con 
tingent, they at the same time succeeded in uniting all that is essen 
tial to power, beauty, and sublimity. 

In the character of their gods, the leading idea of the ancients was 
power ; the expression of which predominates in their most sublime 
formations. The mighty head of Zeus, from which wisdom was cre- 
ated, bends forward, meditating and directing the changes of events, 
and producing their revolutions. Among all the celestials, the power 
of him who rules the thunder is the most unlimited, being restricted 
only by the invincible will of Fate, or the wiles of the cunning Hera. 

Zeus is most frequently represented as feeling in himself the full- 
ness of his authority, and delighting in the consciousness of power. In 
the language of the most ancient poet, Zeus, threatening the other 
gods, thus proclaims himself: 

" League all your forces then, ye powers above, 
Join all, and try the omnipotence of Jove. 
Let down our golden, everlasting chain, 
Whose strong embrace holds heaven, earth, and main, 



118 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Strive all of mortal and immortal birth, 

To drag by this the thunderer down to earth ; 

Ye strive in vain ; if I but stretch this hand, 

I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land. 

I fix the chain of great Olympus' height, 

And the vast world hangs trembling in my sight ; 

For such I reign unbounded and above, 

And such are men and gods compared to Jove." — E. 8. 

From this representation, it is also evident, that in the most perfect 
idea of Zeus, the surrounding All was comprised. As, however, in 
this idea every thing is exalted and ennobled, it is not strange that 
those heroes, whose ancestors were unknown, should be called sons of 
Zeus. They were the eminent children of the universe, and, conse- 
quently, the genuine sons of Jove. 

Almost every nation had its Jupiter. Among the first was Jupiter 
Ammon, of Libya. His temple, the ruins of which are still to be 
seen, was in an oasis or island of verdure in the desert, west of Egypt. 
Jupiter Serapis, worshipped in Egypt, was also very ancient Jupiter 
Belus, mentioned by Herodotus, was the Jupiter of the Assyrians. 
The Ethiopians called him Assabinus, the Gauls 
Taranus, and the inhabitants of the Lower Nile, 
Apis. The Romans considered him the protect- 
ing deity of their empire, and styled him Jupi- 
ter Capitolinus from his chief temple on the 
Capitoline Hill ; Jupiter Tonans, or Thunder- 
er ; Jupiter Fulminans, or Fulgurator, scatterer 
of lightning. An ancient gem shows him qui- 
etly looking into the universe, holding the thun- 
der in his right hand, and in his left, the im- 
perial sceptre, with the eagle at his feet. An- 
other represents him with the horns of a ram. This is the image of 
Jupiter Ammon, who was principally worshipped in Libya, where he 
gave oracles. 

The following legend accounts for the name of Jupiter Ammon : — Bac- 
chos being in the midst of the sands of Arabia, was seized with a thirst 
so burning, that he longed even for a drop of water. Jupiter then 
presented himself in the form of a ram, and striking the earth, caused 
the grateful liquid to spring forth in abundance. To commemorate the 
deed, Bacchos erected a temp[e in the deserts of Libya, giving it the 
name of Jupiter Ammon (i. e. 




ZEUS OR JUPITER. 119 



The curled beard and hair in the representations of Jupiter are in- 
dicative of inward power and strength — he knits his black brows j 
he shakes his ambrosial locks, and Olympus trembles. 

" He whose all conscious eye the world beholds, 
The eternal Thunderer sits enthroned in gold ; 
High Heaven the footstool of his feet he makes, 
And wide beneath him all Olympus shakes, 
He speaks, and awful bends his sable brows, 
Shakes his ambrosial curls* and gives the nod, 
The stamp of Fate and sanction of a God ; 
High Heaven, with trembling, the dread signal takes, 
And all Olympus to the centre shakes." 

The distinguishing characteristic in all representations of Jupiter, 
whether by artists' or poets, is majesty ; and every thing about him 
indicates dignity and authority. His look is sometimes intended to 
strike the beholder with terror, and sometimes with gratitude : and 
always to command respect and veneration. This would have appeared 
more strongly had some of the ancient statues of Jupiter, particularly 
that of Olympus, remained until our time. The statue of Jupiter in 
the Yerospi palace at Rome, though one of the best we have, falls very 
far short of the idea we form of him from the ancient poets. It is, 
however, easily recognized as Jupiter, by the dignity of his look, the 
fulness of the hair, and the venerable beard ; in his left hand he holds 
the sceptre, and the fulmen in his right. The fulmen in the hand of 
Jupiter was a sort of hieroglyphic, having three different meanings, 
according to the three ways in which it was represented. The first is 
a wreath of flame in a conical shape, like what we call the thunderbolt. 
This was adapted to Jupiter, when mild and calm, and was held down 
in his hand. The second is the same figure, with two transverse darts 
of lightning, and sometimes with wings on each side of it, to denote 
swiftness. This was given to Jupiter when he was represented as 
punishing. The thundering legion among the Romans bore the winged 
fulmen on their shields, which spread all over them, as appears from 
the Antonine and Trajan pillars. In Buonarotti's collection at Flor- 
ence, there is a figure of Jupiter holding up a three-forked bolt, as if 
just ready to dart it at some guilty wretch, but with the conical ful- 



* Ambrosia, the food of the gods, was also used for anointing the body and hair ; 
hence the expression " ambrosial locks." 



120 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



men lying under his feet as of no use in cases of severity. The third 
way is a handful of flames, which Jupiter held up when inflicting some 
exemplary punishment. 

The different characters under which Jupiter was represented by the 
Romans were chiefly these : 

The Jupiter Capitolinus, who was esteemed the great guardian of 
the Komans, and who was (according to a very early and strong notion 
among them) to give them the empire of the world. They called him 
Optimus Maximus, or the best and greatest, which description is often 
found on medals. He was represented (as appears on a medal of 
Vitellius) in his chief temple on the Capitoline Hill, as sitting in a 
curule chair,* with the mildest fulmen held down in his right hand, his 
character being one of goodness rather than of severity ; and in his left 
he bears his sceptre as king or father of men. But it was neither the 
sceptre nor fulmen that chiefly showed the superiority of Jupiter 
in all his different characters, but the air of majesty which it was the 
aim of all artists to express in his countenance. 

The mild Jupiter appears as on a gem at Florence with a mixture 
of dignity and ease in his face ; that kind of majesty given him by 
Virgil when receiving Venus with so much parental tenderness, in the 
first Mneid. (V., 256.) 

The statues of the terrible Jupiter differed in every particular from 
those of the mild. These were generally of white marble, as those 
were of black. The mild is sitting with an air of tranquillity ; the ter- 
rible is standing and more or less disturbed ; the face of the mild is 
serene, the terrible is cloudy or angry ; the hair of the one is composed, 
the other so discomposed as to fall half-way down the forehead. But 
the artists were careful never to represent him with such an exhibition 
of passion as to destroy his majesty. 



* A curule chair was a raised, embellished seat, made of ivory, gold, or other material. 
Sometimes it was placed in a chariot, in which the chief officers were carried to council. 
It was also a mark of distinction for dictators, praetors, censors, and aediles, who from 
this circumstance were called curules. The pontiffs and vestal virgins had also a right 
to a kind of curule chair. 

Representations of the form and ornaments of this honorable seat are found on many 
Etruscan monuments, from which people the Romans received the custom through 
Tarquinius Priscus. Numa had previously given the power to the flamen of Jupiter, 
as a mark of his dignity. At a later period of the republic, under tbe Emperors, the 
curule chair was given to foreign princes. Titus Livius relates that Eumenes, king of 
Pergamos, received from the Roman people a curule chair and an ivory sceptre. 



EUS OR JUPITER. 



121 



The Jupiter Tonans resembled the Jupiter Terribilis, and is repre- 
sented on medals and gems, as holding up the triple-forked fulmen, and 
standing in a chariot drawn by four horses. The Jupiter Fulminans 
and Jupiter Fulgurator appear much the same. The Fulminans may 
be considered as the dispenser of lightnings which dart from the clouds ; 
and the other, of the Fulgetra, or lesser lightnings, which shoot along 
the clouds like the Aurora Borealis. 

The flint-stone was considered as the symbol of lightning, and was 
often placed in the hand of Jupiter instead of the thunderbolt. In 
ancient times, a flint-stone was exhibited as a symbolic representation 
of the god. 

The Jupiter Pluvius, or dis- 
penser of rain, is nowhere repre- 
sented, except on a medal, and 
on the Trajan and Antonine pil- 
lars, where he is seated in the 
clouds, holding up his right hand, 
from which pours a stream of 
rain and hail upon the earth, 
while his fulmen is held down in 
his lap. On the pillars as well 
as the medals, he appears with 
an elderly and sedate look : and 
with his arms extended nearly in a straight line each way. The wings 
given him on the pillar, relate to the original and principal character 
of this god, that of presiding over the air. His hair and beard are all 
spread down by the rain which descends from him in sheets and falls 
for the refreshment of the Romans, whilst their enemies are represented 
as struck with lightning and lying dead before them. 

There was scarcely any character of Jupiter that was more capable 
of giving sublime ideas to the artists than this of Jupiter Pluvius. 
For though on the medal and Antonine pillar he appears calm and 
still, on the Trajan he is represented as much more agitated, and the 
Roman poets (whose works are counterpart to those of the artists) not 
only speak of Jupiter as descending in violent showers, but as quite 
ruffled by the winds which usually attend them. Silius actually rises into 
poetry when he is treating this subject, and one of the finest passages 
in the ^Eneid relates to the same. It is where Evander is pointing 
out the Capitoline Hill to iEneias, which Virgil supposes Jupiter to 




122 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

have chosen for his peculiar residence, before his temple was built, or 
even before the building of Rome.* 

From this hill he looked down upon the city and the forum, and 
from the Alban and sacred mounts surveyed the whole of Latium, for 
he was protector of the city and surrounding country. As such he 
was worshipped by the consuls, on entering upon their office ; and a 
general, returning from a campaign, had first of all to offer up his 
thanks to Jupiter, and in his honor the victorious celebrated their 
triumph. 

According to the belief of the Romans, Jupiter determined the 
course of all earthly affairs, and revealed the future through signs in 
the heavens and the flight of birds ; hence they are called his mes- 
sengers. For the same reason, Jupiter was invoked at the beginning 
of every undertaking, together with Janus, who blessed the beginning 
itself. 

Rams were sacrificed to him on the ides of every month, and the 
beginning of every week. It may be remarked, in general, that the 
first day of every period of time, both at Rome and in Latium, was sa- 
cred to Jupiter, and marked by festivals, sacrifices, and libations. 

Jupiter was considered as the guardian of law and the protector of 
justice and virtue. He maintained the sanctity of an oath, and pre- 
sided over all transactions that were based upon faithfulness and jus- 
tice. Hence Fides was his companion on the capitol ; and hence a 
traitor to his country, and persons guilty of perjury, were thrown down 
the Tarpeian rock. 

As Jupiter was the prince of light, the white color was sacred to 
him. The animals sacrificed to him were white ; his chariot was be- 
lieved to be drawn by four white horses ; his priests wore white caps, 
and the consuls were attired in white when they offered sacrifices. 

The worship offered to Zeus was the most solemn of any paid to 
the heathen deities ; it was greatly diversified among different nations, 
and the stories of his birth in a cave on the island of Crete, or at 
Thebes in Boeotia, or on a mountain in Arcadia, are but so many tra- 



* In the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, the shrines of Jupiter, Juno, and 
Minerva were joined together. These three were considered superior among the twelve 
great gods, as the rest of the twelve were over the multitude of Roman divinities. 
Jupiter probably signified supreme goodness, Minerva supreme wisdom, and Juno, 
supreme power. Spence. 



ZEUS OR JUPITER. 123 



ditions of the several places where his worship became famous and was 
celebrated with the greatest pomp and ceremony. The reason of its 
having been so in Crete, is very evident ; for these states were founded 
by Minos and Cadmos, two Attic princes, who introduced their national 
rites. But the Arcadians, whose lives were devoted to war or pastu- 
rage, in a rough, mountainous country, became afterwards a rude and 
fierce people in comparison to their neighbors, and yet they retained 
more traditions respecting the birth, education, and adventures of the 
gods, than the more civilized tribes of the Peloponnesus. This was 
owing probably to their early instruction ; first by the descendants of 
Inachos, and then by the Danaides, in the religion and rites which 
each brought from their own country. 

The victims most commonly offered, were a goat, a sheep, or a white 
bull with gilded horns ; though not unfrequently the sacrifice consisted 
only of flour, salt, or incense. The eagle, the oak, and the summits 
of mountains were sacred to him. The Dodonean Zeus was a prophetic 
god, and wore a wreath of oak leaves. The Olympian Zeus sometimes 
wears a wreath of olive. 

At Olympia, every fifth year, the Olympic games were celebrated in 
honor of Zeus, where he was considered as the father and king of gods 
and men, and the supreme god of the Hellenic nation. 

Many objects, says Pausanias, may a man see in Greece, and many 
things may he hear that are worthy of admiration, but above them all, 
the doings at Eleusis, and the sights at Olympia, have somewhat in 
them of a soul divine. 

In Wordsworth's G-reece we find the following account of Olympia : 

" In descending the slopes which fall to the south-west of Mount 
Erymanthus, we come in sight of a valley, about three miles in length, 
and one in breadth, lying from east to west below the hill on which we 
stand, and bounded on the south by a broad river, running over a 
gravelly bed, and studded with small islands. Its banks are shaded 
with plane-trees ; and rich fields of pasture and arable land are watered 
by its stream. The valley is Olympia, the hill is Mount Cronius, the 
river, the Alpheus. The eastern and western boundaries of the plain 
are formed by two other streams, both flowing into the Alpheus. Be- 
ginning at Mount Cronius, and following the western of these two 
brooks, formerly called the Cladeus, among the clusters of pines and 
olives, to the point where it falls into the Alpheus, and tracing our 
course eastward along the Alpheus for about a mile, till we arrive at a 



124 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 




ridge which falls downward to the east, and pursuing this ridge, which 
runs to the north, till we come to Mount Cronius, from which it de- 
scends, we have made the circuit or traced the limits of the peribolus 
of the ancient Altis, or sacred grove of Jupiter, which was formerly 
the seat of the most glorious and holy objects of Olympia. On the 
south and east, it was bounded by a wall : on the north by the moun- 
tain which we have mentioned, and on the west by the Cladeus. 

" Looking downward towards the river from the southern slopes of 
Mount Cronius, we have immediately on our right, the positions of the 
ancient Gymnasium and Prytaneum. Beneath us, stood the row of 
ten treasuries from west to east, which were raised by different Greek 
states, and contained statues and other offerings of great value and 
exquisite workmanship. Below them, on a basement of some steps, 
were six statues of Jupiter called Zanes, made from the fines levied 
upon the athletes who had transgressed the laws, by which the Olym 
pian contests were regulated. Further to the left, in a wood of wild 
olives in a declivity of Mount Cronius, and running from north to 
south, was the stadium. It was approached by the Hellanodicse or 
judges of the course, by a secret entrance as it was called. The start- 
ing-place, or aphesis, was at the northern extremity, near which was 
the tomb of Endymion. 



ZEUS OR JUPITER, 125 



" Beyond the stadium and eastern limit of the Altis, still further to 
the left, was the Hippodrome, which stretched from west to east ; its 
western facade was formed by a portico built by the architect Agnap- 
tus. Passing through it, the spectator arrived at a triangular area, of 
which the vale coincided with the back of the portico; in each of the 
two sides, which were more than four hundred feet in length, was a 
series of stalls or barriers, in which the chariots and horses stood, 
parallel to each other : all looking straight towards the course. A 
rope was stretched in front of these barriers. At the apex of the 
triangle or point nearest the course, stood a bronze dolphin raised upon 
a style. In the middle of the triangle was an altar of unbaked brick, 
which was whitened at every successive Olympiad; raised above it, 
was a bronze eagle, stretching its wings at full length. When the 
proper time had arrived, the officer of the course touched the spring 
concealed within the altar, and the eagle began to soar aloft, an impulse 
being thus given to it, so that it became visible to all the spectators. 
At the same time the bronze dolphin fell to the ground. Then the 
rope was withdrawn, first from the barriers on each side nearest to the 
base of the triangle, so as to allow the horses in them to start ; when they 
had arrived in a line with those in the second barriers, these latter 
were let out, and thus the next in order, till gradually they were all 
liberated, so that at the moment when the last pair were released, they 
were all side by side in a line drawn through the apex, parallel to the 



" An isolated longitudinal ridge, or spine, commencing at some dis- 
tance from the apex, divided the Hippodrome into two parts ; around 
this the course lay, beginning on the right or southern side of it. 

" Nearly in the centre of the Altis, or consecrated ground, stood the 
temple of the Olympian Jove. It was erected from the spoils taken 
by the Eleans, in their contests with the inhabitants of Pisa. It was 
a Doric edifice hypaethral and peripteral, ninety-five feet in breadth, 
two hundred and thirty in length, and sixty-eight to the summit of the 
pediment in height. The interior was divided into three compartments, 
by two rows of columns each in double tiers. The stone of which it 
was constructed was the poros of the country ; its architect, Libon of 
Elis. 

" A golden vase adorned both ends of the roof In the centre of both 
the pediments was a golden statue of Victory, and under the Victory 
a shield of gold, having a figure of Medusa upon it In later times, 



126 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

one and twenty gilded bucklers hung upon the architrave over the 
columns, the offering of Mumniius after the destruction of Corinth. In 
both the pediments were groups of sculpture ; the eastern exhibited 
the contest between Pelops and (Enomaus : this was the work of Paeo- 
nius, a native of Menda in Thrace : that on the western front repre- 
sented the contest of the Centaurs and Lapithae, and was the work of 
Alcamenes, a contemporary of Phidias. In the Metopes were scenes 
from the history of Hercules. 

" But the most glorious ornament of this magnificent fabric, and one 
which, in the language of the ancient critic, added dignity to religion, 
was the statue of Jupiter within the temple ; it was the work of Phi- 
dias, and formed of ivory and gold. This combination, as a great 
English sculptor expresses it, ' equally splendid and harmonious, in 
such a colossal form, produced a dazzling glory, like electric fluid, 
running over the surface of the figure, and thus giving it the appearance 
of an immortal vision in the eyes of the votary.' No wonder, there- 
fore, if it was commonly believed that Jupiter himself had lighted up 
the statue, and had kindled in its aspect a blaze of divinity by a flash 
of lightning from Heaven. The ivory, with which a greater part of the' 
figure was overlaid, had a flesh tint, which communicated to it the 
appearance of a Teal, living, and intelligent object, while the gold, the 
precious stones, and the painting with which it and its accessories were 
decorated, and the stupendous size of the whole work, sixty feet in 
height, produced a brilliant and astounding effect, which awed the 
beholder into a belief that he was looking at the form and face of Ju- 
piter himself. Nor let it be forgotten, that the whole work was in- 
formed by a spirit within, breathed into it from the mouth of Homer ; 
for it was his description of the king of gods and men, which filled the 
mind of Phidias, as he himself confessed, when he executed this statue. 

" This god sat upon his throne wearing a crown like an olive wreath 
upon his head. In his right hand he supported a statue of Victory, 
which he seemed to offer to the combatants who came hither to adore 
him ; it was made of ivory and gold, and bore a chaplet. In his left 
hand was a staff or sceptre, inlaid with metals of every description, and 
having an eagle perched upon its summit. The sandals of the deity 
were of gold, as was also his robe, which was embroidered with figures 
and lilies. The throne on which he sat was adorned with gold and 
precious stones, with ebony and ivory, with painted figures and others 
in relief Embossed on each of the four feet of the throne tvere four 



ZEUS OR JUPITER. 127 



dancing victories, and besides them, two statues of Victory standing 
near each foot. In addition to this, on the two front feet were repre- 
sented the children of the Thebans, seized by the Sphinges ; and below 
the Sphinges, Apollo and Diana were transfixing with their arrows the 
sons of Niobe. 

" Between the feet were single horizontal bars ; on that towards the 
entrance were seven figures in relief; and on the others, the contests 
of Hercules and his comrades with the Amazons. Each of the bars 
was bisected by an upright column, which, together with the feet, served 
to support the statue. Other decorations of a minute character were 
scattered near it in rich profusion. 

" Such was the appearance which the Olympian Jove presented to the 
view when the purple embroidered veil which hung before him descend- 
ed to the ground, and exhibited the father of Gods and men in all the 
glories of which the greatest spirits of antiquity could conceive and 
execute the idea. 

u The Olympic games were celebrated once in four years. They lasted 
for five days, and terminated on the full moon which preceded the 
summer solstice. Contrasted with the particular seras which served 
for the chronological arrangement of events in distinct provinces in 
Greece, the epoch supplied by their celebration to all the inhabitants 
of the Hellenic soil, deserves peculiar attention. While the succession 
of Priestesses of Juno at Argos — while the Ephors at Sparta, and the 
Archons at Athens, furnished to those states respectively the bases of 
their chronological systems, it was not a personage invested with a 
civil or sacerdotal character who gave his name merely to the single 
years, but to the quadrennial periods of the whole of Greece ; it- was 
he who was proclaimed victor, not in the chariot race of the Hippo- 
drome, but as having outrun his rivals in the stadium at Olympia. A 
reflection on the rapid course of Time (the great racer in the stadium 
of the world) might well be suggested by such a practice ; but it is 
more remarkable, as illustrating the regard paid, by the unanimous 
consent of all the states of Greece, to these exercises of physical force 
which preserved them so long from the corruptions of luxury and effem- 
inacy, into which, through their growing opulence and familiarity with 
oriental habits, they would very soon otherwise have fallen. Olympia 
was the Palaestra of all Greece. The simplicity of the prizes, the an- 
tiquity of their institution, the sacred ceremonies with which they were 
. connected; the glory which attached,' not merely to the victor, but to 



128 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

his parents, his friends, and country ; his canonization in the Greek 
calendar ; the concourse of rival tribes from every quarter of the Greek 
continent and peninsula, to behold the contests and applaud the con- 
queror ; the lyric songs of poets ; the garlands showered upon his head 
by the hands of friends, of strangers, and of Greece herself; the statue 
erected to him in the precincts of the grove, by the side of princes, of 
heroes, and of gods : the very rareness of the celebration ; and the glories 
of the season of the year at which it took place, when all the charms 
of summer were poured upon the earth by day and the full orb of the 
moon streamed upon the olive groves and the broad flood of the Alpheios 
by night ; these were influences which, while they seemed to raise the 
individual to an elevation more than human, produced a far more noble 
and useful result than this — that of maintaining in the nation a gene- 
ral respect for a manly and intrepid character, and of supporting that 
moral dignity and independence which so long resisted the aggressions 
of force from without, and were proof against the contagion of weak and 
licentious principles within. 

" Without interruption for a thousand years, the full moon, after the 
summer solstice every fourth year, witnessed the celebration of these 
games. The first Olympiad coincides with the year B. G. 776, the last 
with A. D. 394, or the sixteenth of the Emperor Theodosius, when the 
calculation by indications was adopted in its stead. According to the 
assertion of Polybius, Timseus, the Sicilian historian, who had flour- 
ished B. C. 300, was the first annalist who introduced the regular 
practice of comparing chronologically the Archons of Athens, the 
priestesses of Argos, and the Ephors and kings of Sparta, with the 
contemporary victors at Olympia. He was thus the founder of the 
Olympic agra as applied to history, without which no records for the 
general use of Greece could have existed. 

" There is now no habitation on the site of Olympia. On the north 
of it are rocky heights crowned with wood ; some pines are seen on the 
hills to the west ; and oriental palm-trees hang over the wide gravelly 
bed of the river Alpheios on the south. Some few ruins of brick are 
scattered over the soil of what was once the Altis, or consecrated en- 
closure, but hardly a vestige remains even of the foundations of the 
temple of Olympian Jove ; and all the altars and statues which once 
crowded its precincts have passed away like those countless multitudes 
who came here and departed hence in successive generations during \ 



OLYMPIC GAMES. 129 



fifth part of the long period of time which has elapsed from the creation 
of the world to the present day." 

The origin of the Olympic games is concealed amid the obscurity 
of the mystic period of G-recian history. Olympia was a sacred spot, 
on which stood a statue of Zeus long before the institution of the 



The Eleans had various traditions which attributed the original foun 
dation of the festival to various gods and heroes, at a long period prior 
to the Trojan war, and among these, to the Idaean Heracles, to Pelops, 
and to Heracles, the son of Alcmena. The Eleans further stated that af- 
ter the iEtolians had possessed themselves of Elis, their whole territory 
was consecrated to Zeus ; that the games were revived by their king 
Iphitos, in conjunction with Lycurgos, as a remedy for the disorders 
of Greece ; and that Iphitos obtained the sanction of the Delphic oracle 
to the institution, and appointed a periodical sacred truce to enable 
persons to attend the games from every part of Greece, and to return 
to their homes in safety. This event was recorded on a disc, which 
was preserved by the Eleans, and on which the names of Zeus and 
Lycurgos were inscribed. 

The territory of Elis itself was considered especially sacred during 
the continuance of this truce, and no armed force could enter it without 
incurring the guilt of sacrilege. When the Spartans on one occasion 
sent forces against the fortress of Phyneum and Lepreum, during the 
existence of the Olympic truce, they were fined by the Eleans, accord- 
ing to the Olympic law, two thousand minae, being two for each Hoplite. 
The Eleans, however, not only pretended that their laws were invio- 
late during the existence of the. truce, but that by the original agree- 
ment with the other states of Peloponnesus, their lands were made 
sacred for ever, and were never to be attacked by any hostile force ; 
and they further stated, that the first violation of their territory was 
made by Pheidon of Argos. But the Eleans themselves did not abstain 
from arms, and it is not probable that such a privilege would have 
existed without imposing on them the corresponding duty of refraining 
from any attack upon the territory of their neighbors. The later 
Greeks do not appear to have admitted this claim of the Eleans, as 
we find many cases in which their country was made the scene of 
war. 

The Olympic festival was probably confined at first to the Pelopon- 

9 



130 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

nesians, but as its celebrity extended, the other Greeks took part in it. 
till at length it became a festival of the whole nation. No one was 
allowed to continue in the games, but persons of pure Hellenic blood ; 
barbarians might be spectators, but slaves were entirely excluded. All 
persons who had been branded by their own states with atimia } # or 
had been guilty of any offence against the divine laws, were not permit- 
ted to contend. When the Hellenic race had been extended by colo- 
nies to Asia, Africa, and other parts of Europe, persons contended in 
the games from very distant places ; and in later times, a greater num- 
ber of conquerors came from the colonies, than from the mother coun- 
try. 

After the conquest of Greece by the Romans, the latter were allowed 
to take part in the games. The emperors, Tiberius and Nero, were 
both conquerors ; and Pausanias speaks of a Roman senator who gained 
the victory. During the freedom of Greece, even Greeks were some- 
times excluded, when they had been guilty of a crime which appeared 
to the Eleans to deserve this punishment. The horses of Hiero of 
Syracuse were excluded from the chariot race through the influence 
of Themistocles, because he had not taken part with the other Greeks 
against the Persians. All the Lacedemonians were excluded on the 
90th Olympiad because they had not paid the fine for violating the 
Elean territory, as mentioned above ; and similar cases of exclusion 
are mentioned by the ancient writers. 

No women were allowed to be present or even to cross the Alpheus 
during the celebration of the games, under penalty of being hulled 
down the Typsean rock. Only one instance is recorded of a woman's 
having ventured to be present, and she, although detected, was par- 
doned in consideration of her father, brothers, and son having been 
victors in the games. An exception was made to this law in favor of 



* Atimia.— The forfeiture of a man's civil rights. It was either total or partial. A 
man was totally deprived of his rights, both for himself and his descendants, when he 
was convicted of murder, theft, false-witness, partiality as arbiter, violence offered to a 
magistrate, etc., etc. The highest degree of atimia, excluded a person affected by it 
from the forum, and from all public assemblies ; from the public sacrifices, and the 
law courts ; or rendered him liable to immediate imprisonment if he was found in any 
one of these places. It was either temporary or perpetual, and either accompanied or 
not with confiscation of property. Partial atimia involved the forfeiture of some few 
rights ; as, for instance, that of pleading in courts. Public debtors were suspended from 
their civic functions, till they had discharged their debt to the state ; and people who 
had once become altogether atimia, were seldom restored to their lost privileges. 



OLYMPIC GAMES. 131 



the priestess Deineter Chamyne, who sat on an altar of white marble 
opposite to the Hellanodicae. It would appear from another passage 
of Pausanias, that virgins were allowed to be present, though married 
women were not ; but this statement is opposed to all others on the 
subject, and the reading of the passage seems to be doubtful. Women 
were allowed, however, to send chariots to the races ; and the first 
woman whose horse won the prize was Cynisca, the daughter of Archi- 
damus, and sister of Agesilaus. The number of spectators at the fes- 
tival was very great, and these were drawn together, not merely by the 
desire of seeing the games, but partly through the opportunity it af- 
forded them of carrying on commercial transactions with persons from 
distant places, as is the case with the Mahomedan festivals at Mecca 
and Medina. Many of the persons present were also deputies sent to 
represent the various states of Greece ; and we find that these embas- 
sies vied with one another in the number of their offerings, and splen- 
dor of their general appearance, in order to support the honor of their 
native cities. The most illustrious citizens of a state were frequently 
sent in this capacity. 

This festival, celebrated every fifth year, consisted of religious cere- 
monies, athletic contests and races, and was under the immediate su- 
perintendence of the Olympian Zeus. The exact interval at which 
they recurred was one of forty-nine and fifty lunar months alternately ; 
;o that the celebration sometimes fell in the month of July and some- 
Times in August. 

The worship of Apollo was associated with that of Zeus, and the 
early tradition connects Hercules with the festival. This is another 
proof of the Dorian origin of the games, for Apollo and Hercules were 
two of the principal deities of the Doric race. There were altars at 
Olympia to other gods, which were said to have been erected by Her- 
cules, and at which, the victors sacrificed. 

The festival itself may be divided into two parts, the games or con- 
tests, and the festival rites connected with the sacrifices, with the pro- 
cessions, and with the public banquets in honor of the conquerors. 
The conquerors in the games and private individuals, as well as the 
theori or deputies from the various states, offered sacrifices to the 
different gods ; but the chief sacrifices were offered by the Eleans in 
the name of the Elean state. 

The contests consisted of various trials of strength and skill, which 
were increased in number from time to time. The earliest of these 



132 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



games was the foot race, and was the only contest during thirteen 
Olympiads. The space run was the length of the stadium in which 
the games were held, namely, about six hundred English feet 

In the 14th Olympiad wrestling was introduced B. C. 708. The 
wrestlers were matched in pairs by lot. When there was an odd num- 
ber, the person who was left by the lot without an antagonist, wrestled 
last of all with him who had conquered the others. The athlete who 
gave his antagonist three throws, gained the victory. There was 
another kind of wrestling in which if the combatant who fell could 
drag down his antagonist with him, the struggle was continued on the 
ground, and the one who succeeded in getting uppermost and holding 
the other down, gained the victory. 

In the same year was introduced the Pentathlon, which consisted 
of five exercises, viz. leaping, running, throwing the quoit, throwing 
the javelin, and wrestling. In leaping, they carried weights in their 
hands, or on their shoulders ; and their object was to leap the greatest 
distance without regard to height. The Discus or quoit was a heavy 
weight of a circular or oval shape ; neither this nor the javelin was 
aimed at a mark ; but he who threw the furthest was the victor. In 
order to gain a victory in the Pentathlon, it was necessary to conquer 
in each of the five parts. Boxing was introduced in the 23d Olympiad 
(B C. 688). The boxers had their hands and arms covered with thongs 
of leather called cestus. which served to defend them as well as to annoy 
their antagonists. The Pancratium consisted of boxing and wrestling 
combined. In this exercise, and in the cestus, the vanquished comba- 
tant acknowledged his defeat by some sign ; and this is supposed to be 
the reason why the Spartans were forbidden by the laws of Lycurgus 
to practise them, as it would have been esteemed a disgrace to his 
country, that a Spartan should confess himself defeated. 

The horse races were of two kinds, the chariot race and the horse 
race. The chariot race, generally with four horse chariots, was intro- 
duced in the 25th Olympiad (B. C. 680). The course had two goals 
in the middle, at the distance probably of two stadia from each other, 
The chariots started from one of these goals, passed round the other, 
and returned along the other side of the Hippodrome. This circuit 
was made twelve times ; and the great art of the charioteer consisted 
in turning as close as possible to the goals, but without running against 
them or agaiDSt the other chariots. The places at .the starting pose 
were assigned to the chariots by lot. There was another race between 



OLYMPIC GAMES. 133 



chariots with two horses, and a race between chariots drawn by mules 
was introduced in the 70th Olympiad and abolished in the 84th. 

There were two sorts of races on horseback — one in which each 
competitor rode one horse throughout the course, and another, in which 
as the horse approached the goal, the rider leaped from his back and 
keeping hold of the bridle, finished the course on foot. In the 37th 
Olympiad (B. C. 632), running on foot and wrestling between boys 
was introduced. There were also contests in poetry and music at the 
Olympian festivals. 

The Hellanodicse, or judges in the Olympic games, were chosen by 
lot from the whole body of the Eleans. Their office probably lasted 
only for one festival, during which time it was their duty to see that 
all the laws regulating the games were observed by the competitors 
and others, to determine the prizes, and to give them to the conquerors. 
An appeal lay from their decision to the Elean Senate. Their office 
was considered most honorable. Their dress was a purple robe, and 
in the stadium a special seat was appropriated to them. Under the 
direction of the Hellanodicse was a certain number of deputies, who 
formed a kind of police, who carried into execution the commands of 
the Hellanodicac. 

All persons were admitted to a contest in the Olympic games who 
could prove that they were free men, that they were of genuine Hel- 
lenic blood, and that their characters were free from infamy and im- 
morality. So great was the importance attached to the second of these 
particulars, that the kings of Macedon were obliged to prove their 
Hellenic descent before gaining admittance. The equestrian contests 
were necessarily confined to the wealthy, who displayed in them great 
magnificence : but the poorest citizens could contend in the athletic 
contests. The owners of the chariots and horses were not obliged to 
contend in person ; and the wealthy vied with one another in the mag- 
nificence of the chariots and horses which they sent to the games. 
Alcibiades sent seven chariots to one festival, a greater number than 
had ever been sent by a private person; three of them obtained 
prizes. 

The Greek kings in Sicily, Macedon, and other parts of the Hellenic 
world, contended with one another for the prize in the equestrian 
contests. 

The combatants underwent a long and vigorous training, the nature 
of which varied with the game in which they intended to engage. Ten 



134 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



months before the festival they were obliged to appear at Elis, to enter 
their names as competitors, stating at the same time the prize for which 
they wished to contend. 

This interval of ten months was spent in preparatory exercises, and 
for a part of it, the last ninety days at least, they were thus engaged 
in the gymnasium at Elis. When the festival arrived their names 
were proclaimed in the stadium, and after proving that they were not 
disqualified from taking part in the games, they were led to the altar 
of Zeus, the guardian of oaths, where they swore that they had gone 
through all the preparatory exercises required by the laws, and that 
they would not be guilty of any fraud, nor of any attempt to interfere 
with the fair course of the games. Any one detected in bribing his 
adversary to yield him the victory was heavily fined. After taking 
the oath they were accompanied by their relatives and friends into the 
stadium, who exhorted them to acquit themselves nobly. 

The only prize given to the conqueror was a garland of wild olive, 
which, according to the Elean legend, was the prize originally institu- 
ted by the Idaean Heracles.* This garland was cut from a sacred 
olive tree, which grew in the sacred grove of Altis, in Olympia, near 
the altars of Aphrodite and the Hours. Heracles is said to have 
brought it from the country of the Hyperboreans and to have placed it 
himself in the Altis. The victor was originally crowned upon a tripod 
covered over with bronze, but afterwards, and in the time of Pausanias, 
upon a table made of ivory and gold. Palm-leaves were at the same 
time placed in the hands of the victors, and their names, together with 
the games in which they had conquered, were proclaimed by a sacred 
herald. 

A victory at Olympia, besides being the highest honor which a Greek 
could obtain, conferred so much glory upon the State to which he be- 



* In mythological story, the Idsean Heracles, according to Pausanias, was one of the 
fdsean Dactyli, to whom Rhea committed the care of the infant Zeus. They were 
also called Curetes. They came from Ida, a mountain of Crete, and were named He- 
racles, Paeeneus, Epimedes, Iasion, and Idas. 

It is further related that to the Idaean Heracles is attributed the honor of having first 
proposed the Olympic games, and selected as a reward the crown of olives ; and the 
periodical renewal of these games was appointed every fifth year to commemorate, it 
is said, the number of the Dactyli. To the same Heracles, with the surname, Auxilia- 
tor, an altar was erected at Olympia, by his descendant Clymenus, only fifty years 
after the deluge of Deucalion, and long previous to the age of Theseus. At Megalo- 
polis, in Arcadia, there was a statue of \he Idaean Heracles, one cubit high. 



OLYMPIC GAMES. 135 



onged, that successful candidates were frequently solicited to allow 
themselves to be proclaimed as citizens of States to which they did not 
naturally belong. The festival ended with processions and sacrifices, 
and with a public banquet given by the Eleans to the conquerors in 
the prytaneum. 

Fresh honors awaited the victor on his return home. He entered 
his native city in triumph through a breach made in the walls for his 
reception ; banquets were given him by his friends, at which odes were 
sung in honor of the victory ; and his statue was then erected at 
his own expense, or that of his fellow-citizens, in the Altis or sacred 
grove of Zeus. At Athens, according to a law of Solon, the Olympic 
victor was rewarded with a prize of 500 drachmae ; at Sparta, the fore- 
most place in battle was assigned him. and three instances are recorded 
in which altars were built, and sacrifices offered to the conquerors at 
the Olympic games. 

It seems to be generally admitted, that the chief object of this fes- 
tival was to form a bond of union for the Grecian States. Besides this, 
the great importance which such an institution gave to the exercises 
of the body, must have had an immense influence in forming the national 
character. Regarded as a bond of union, the Olympic festival seems 
to have had but little success in promoting kindly feelings between the 
Grecian States ; perhaps the rivalry of the contest may have tended 
to exasperate existing quarrels ; but it undoubtedly furnished a strik- 
ing exhibition of the nationality of the Greeks, and the distinction 
between them and other races. The contingent effects of the ceremony 
were, perhaps, after all, the most important. During its celebration. 
Olympia was a centre of the commerce of all Greece, for the free inter- 
change of opinions, and for the publication of knowledge. The con- 
course of people from all Greece afforded a fit audience for literary 
productions, and gave a motive for the composition of works worthy to 
be laid before them. Poetry and statuary received an impulse from 
the demand upon them to aid in perpetuating the victor's fame. But 
the most important and most difficult question connected with the 
subject is, whether their influence on the national character was for 
good or for evil. The exercises of the body on which these games con- 
ferred the greatest honor, have been condemned by some philosophers, 
is tending to unfit men for the active duties of citizens ; while they 
were regarded by others as a most essential part of manly education, 



136 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

and as the chief cause of the bodily vigor and mental energy which 
marked the character of the Hellenic race. 

As persons from all parts of the Hellenic world were assembled 
together at the Olympic games, it was the best opportunity which the 
artist and the writer possessed of making their works known. Before 
the invention of printing, the reading of an author's works to so large 
an assembly was one of the easiest and surest methods of publishing 
them ; and this was a favorite practice of the Greeks and Romans. 
Accordingly, we find many instances of literary works thus published 
at the Olympic festivals. / 

The Olympic games continued to be celebrated with much splendor 
under the Roman Emperors, by many of whom great privileges were 
awarded to the conquerors. 

In the sixteenth year of the reign of Theodosius, A. D. 394 (01. 293). 
the Olympic festival was for ever abolished.- 

The description of the Olympic games will, for the most part, serve 
also for the other three great festivals of Greece, viz. the Isthmian. 
Nemean, and Pythian games. 

HERA OR JUNO. 

By the poets, Hera is represented as the personification of sublime 
beauty united with power ; and in her person is represented that high, 
commanding order of beauty which is superior to the delicacy of female 
charms and does not need them. She is called the reigning, the 
large-eyed, the white-armed ; epithets which tend to inspire us with 
admiration rather than love. It is not the soft and tender eye that 
graces her image ; it is greatness and majesty commanding awe 
and veneration ; and of all the charms which constitute the reigning 
queen of heaven, poetry celebrates none but the powerful arm. And 
indeed, Hera acts a part in nearly all the violent events in heaven and 
on earth. 

The raging elements in which the whole train of human passions is 
but a copy in miniature, are personated in her ; for the violence of the 
elements is chiefly displayed in the lower atmosphere. Here they come 
in collision and interfere with each other ; here they rob, and spoil, 
and breathe revenge ; the rock groans in the furious sea ; and under 
the blast of the storm the billows howl ; here is a perpetual round of 
formation and destruction ; — here is the theatre of insurrection and 




HERA OR JUNO. 



138 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

war ; the seat of wrath, and mourning, and misery : here must Hecuba 
pull out her grey hairs, and Trey become a prey to the flames. 

But above the atmosphere, in the pure ether, every thing is quiet, 
permanent, and regular ; — there, the celestial globes complete their 
courses undisturbed, and nothing interrupts the music of the spheres ; — 
the top of high Olympos rises above the clouds into the still ether, and 
thither imagination transfers the abodes of the blessed immortals, who, 
exempt from care and pain, sip the sweet nectar, while charmed with 
the sound of Apollo's lyre 

In this manner, Fancy always unites the human form of her deities 
with the heavenly archetype. The swan in the bosom of I eda, as the 
blue ether surrounds the earth ; and the ether opens again to show the 
ruler of Olympos with his ambrosial locks, holding the nectar cup in 
his hand. Hera surrounds the globe with a transparent mist, which, 
pierced by the glittering rays of the sun, produces the rainbow, the 
archetype of Iris, Hera's swift messenger ; who, standing in the clouds, 
announced to mankind the approach of the august queen of heaven; 
and the same Hera wanders on foot through this very mist to visit her 
foster-parents at the bounds of the earth. But Fancy, not choosing 
to dwell long on these objects, which she in a certain manner attempts 
to explain by her personifications, rather delights to roam among the 
beings to whom she has given personality ; and represents Hera as 
opposing herself to the all-powerful Zeus, by whom she is suspended 
from Olympos on a chain into her own dominion, the atmosphere, with 
an anvil fastened to either foot. The heavenly and sublime is thus 
made to suffer the disgrace of being lowered down, and all celestials 
mourned at the sight ; but Fancy, the earth-born daughter, delights in 
the sport. 

The worship of Hera was solemn ana universal in the heathen world. 
Young geese and the hawk as well as the peacock were sacred to her ; 
and of plants, the dittany, the poppy, and the lily. The ancients 
offered on her altars a sow and a ewe lamb the first of every month. 

Argos is the first place mentioned by Hera herself as among her 
favored and beloved cities. Urging Zeus to consent to the downfall 
of Troy, a city which she hated, together with Priam s family, because 
of the decision of Paris on Mount Ida, she endeavored to carry her 
point by a kind of barter ; " There are three cities," said she, " which 
are dearest of all to me, Argos, Sparta, and Mycence ; nevertheless, I 



HERA OR JUNO. 139 



willingly part with them, I abandon them entirely to thy will, if thou 
wilt consent to the downfall of Troy." (II. iv. 50.) 

The reason of this partiality to Argos, was the extraordinary venera- 
tion paid to her by its inhabitants. There, particular festivals were cele- 
brated in her honor, which from her Greek name Hera, were called Heraea. 

During this celebration, there were always two processions to the 
temple of the goddess without the city ; the first was of the men in 
armor, and the second of the women, when her priestess, mounted on 
a splendid chariot, rode in triumph to the temple of the goddess to 
offer a hecatomb of white heifers. The goddess was here particularly 
venerated in the person of her high priestess ; a veneration with which 
the touching history of Cleobis and Biton is connected. On one occa- 
sion, when the white heifers which were to have drawn their mother 
were not at hand, they, with filial devotion, yoked themselves to her 
chariot and drew it to the temple, forty-five stadia from the gates of 
Argos, lest she should be deprived of the honor of the day. Having 
been crowned as victors in the gymnastic contests, the two youths 
were welcomed on their arrival at the temple by the congregated peo- 
ple, who congratulated the mother on her sons, and the sons on their 
strength and virtue. The mother, rejoicing in her own happiness and 
her children's deeds, repaired to the sbrine of Juno, and standing 
before the statue, prayed for her sons the greatest blessing which the 
goddess could give, and they receive. It happened that after their 
mother's prayer, and when they had offered their own sacrifices, that 
the two brothers, overcome with fatigue, reclined in the temple and 
fell asleep to wake no more. Their statues were erected at Delphi, by 
the hands of their admiring countrymen, and their lot was declared by 
the wise Solon to the wealthy Croesus, to be only inferior in happiness 
to that of the Athenian Tellus. 

It is worthy of observation, that a spot so distant from the capital 
city itself, should have been selected for the position of the edifice con- 
secrated to its patron deity. Thus removed, however, as the temple of 
Juno was from the haunts of men, placed upon a quiet and solitary 
hill, visited by shepherds and their flocks, surrounded by groves of 
trees, watered on each side by a mountain stream, with a long ridge 
of lofty hills rising at its back, and with the wide Argolic plain stretch 
ing itself at its feet, this sacred building inspired more of that partici- 
lar feeling of awe and veneration, which was specially due to the stately 
dignity of the wife of Jove, and the queen of the gods, than if it had 



140 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

stood on a less sequestered spot, or had been exposed to the daily gaze 
of man amid the noise of the streets, or in the crowd of the Agora of 
the Argolic capital itself. 

The road which leads from Argos to this temple, has gained a lasting 
interest, — similar to that possessed by the Plain of the Pious on the 
sides of Mount iEtna, — from the act of filial devotion in the sons of 
the high priestess. 

The games and contests of the HerEea took place in the stadium, near 
the temple, on the road to the Acropolis. A brazen shield was fixed 
in a place above the theatre, which was scarcely accessible to any one, 
and the young man who succeeded in displacing it, received a shield 
and a garland of myrtle as a prize. 

The Argives always reckoned their year from her priesthood, as the 
Athenians from their Archons, and the Romans from their consuls. 

Festivals were celebrated in honor of Hera in all the towns of Greece, 
where the worship of the divinity was introduced. At ^Egina, the 
Hersea, or Hecatonibsea, were celebrated in the same manner as those 
at Argos. The Heraea of Samos were derived from Argos, and were, 
perhaps, the most brilliant of all the festivals of this divinity. A mag- 
nificent procession consisting of maidens and married women in splen- 
did attire and floating hair, together with men and youths in armor, went 
to the temple of Hera, and on arriving within the precincts, the men 
deposited their armor, and prayers and vows were offered to the goddess. 

The Hersea of Elis were celebrated every fifth year, chiefly by maid- 
ens, conducted by sixteen matrons, who wove the sacred Peplus for 
the goddess. But before the commencement of these solemnities, the 
matrons sacrificed a pig, and purified themselves in the well of Peoria. 
One of the principal solemnities, was a race of the maidens in the 
stadium ; for which purpose, they were divided into three classes accord- 
ing to their age ; the youngest ran first, and the eldest last. The win- 
ner of the prize received a garland of olive boughs, together with part 
of a cow which was sacrificed to Hera. She was also allowed to dedicate 
her own painted likeness in the temple of the goddess. The sixteen 
matrons had each a female attendant, and performed two dances. 

Juno, as well as Jupiter, appeared in a variety of characters. Among 
the liomans, the favorite one was that of Juno Matrona, dressed in a 
long robe ; and thus their empresses were often represented. She was 
regarded as the protectress of married women, and was invoked by the 
Romans under the name of Juno Lucina. 



HESTIA OR VESTA. 



141 



She is generally represented by plastic art in her whole regal splen- 
dor, sitting upon a throne or on the eagle of Jupiter, holding in one 
hand a sceptre, and in the other a veil spangled with stars which flows 
round her head. Among earthly appearances, the tail of the peacock 
bears the strongest resemblance to the bright colors of the rainbow ; 
therefore the chariot of Juno is represented as drawn through the air 
bv those brilliant and majestic birds. 



HESTIA OR VESTA. 

Hestia was said to transfuse the earth 
with sacred warmth ; and her archetype is 
the sacred flame of life, which invisibly 
pervades all animated beings. As an em- 
blem of this animating and life-nourish- 
ing warmth in nature, as well as the pure 
flame that quickens the chaste bosom of 
the goddess, a perpetual fire was preserv- 
ed in her temples. This fire signified 
that pure, unmixed, benign flame that 
quickens the chaste bosom of the goddess, 
and is so necessary to us, that human life 
cannot exist without it ; for this latent 
heat being diffused through all parts of 
the human body, quickens, cherishes, re- 
freshes, and preserves it ; a flame really 
sacred and divine, moving and actuating 
the whole system of life, and expiring 
only with its last breath. 

Poets say, that as it was by the assist- 
ance of Hestia, the enlivening, igneous 
principle, that Zeus obtained the supreme 
government of the universe, he allowed 
her to choose her own honors and privi- 
leges ; being incapable of associating with 
any other element, she made choice of 
perpetual virginity, and the first share 
of every offering made to the other gods. 
Her priestesses, therefore, must be pure, 
unspotted virgins, and allowed the pre- 
cedency at all feasts and sacrifices. 




142 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

A pure feeling of gratitude led the ancients to acknowledge each 
benefit of nature by itself, under some significant emblem ; and it was 
a particularly beautiful idea to cherish and preserve, as it were, this 
sacred flame, which serves man so beneficently, and to devote to its 
service immaculate virgins as its most sacred priestesses. A particu- 
lar place of refuge was appointed to that element, which is so requisite 
to man, where it never was employed for human necessity, but always 
burned for its own sake, attracting the veneration of mortals. 

Among the contemplative priests of the East, Hestia passed for the 
latent power of fire, or the internal texture and disposition of some 
sorts of matter that render it combustible, while others are little 
affected with heat. As such, she was the wife of Uranos. and mother 
of Kronos — the sacred, eternal fire, worshipped with the greatest rev- 
erence and most pompous ceremonies by all the eastern nations. But 
among the less speculative Europeans, who received the knowledge of 
this goddess at second hand, she was considered only as Saturn's 
daughter, and a national tutelary deity. Numa, the pious Sabine, 
priest and king, made her the guardian of the infant state, though, 
generally speaking, she was worshipped as a domestic deity and pro- 
tectress of the family seat all over Italy, and long before in Greece. 

This goddess, then, the pure, eternal Hestia, appears in a double 
capacity ; either as the grand, enlivening genius of the terrestrial 
globe, worshipped with solemn ceremonies, and honored by annual 
processions, under the name of Orosmades by the Persians, and that 
of Serapis by the Egyptians ; or, as the permanent, immovable seat of 
gods and men, the Earth itself : — and by an easy transition, the native 
soil of a nation, or the fixed habitation of a family. Ovid, in his Fasti, 
hints at them both ; but Plato confines them to the latter ; when de- 
scribing the movement of the universe, he says that the supreme god, 
the beneficent Zeus, driving a winged chariot through the heavens, 
marches first, directing and inspecting all things ; after whom the whole 
host of deities and daemons, ranged in twelve bands, follow in order, 
but that Hestia alone remains at home. 

The very ancient worship of Vesta spread its influence over domes- 
tic life, contributing to render it pure and happy. She was the genius 
of the fireside ; and every beneficial influence of the fire that tends 
towards physical preservation, or moral improvement, was considered 
as her gift. And as the surrounding all of nature itself which she 
animated with tender glow, was, as it were, her temple, so Vesta is said 



HESTIA OR VESTA. 143 



'o have caused man to surround his dwelling by a covering for shelter ; 
teaching him to secure himself against the severe influence of the ele- 
ments, and to assemble together and dwell in union with his family 
around the domestic hearth. For this reason, she was one of the 
oousehold gods to whom the Romans daily sacrificed. Her statue was 
placed at the entrance of every dwelling, which was therefore sacred to 
Vesta, and called Vestibulum. 

In the ancient Roman house, the hearth was the central part, and 
around it the inmates daily assembled for their common meal. Every 
meal thus taken was a fresh bond of union among the members of the 
family, and at the same time an act of worship to Vesta, combined with 
a sacrifice to her and the Penates. Every dwelling was therefore, in 
some sense, a temple of Vesta, but a public sanctuary united all the 
citizens of the state into one family. This sanctuary* stood in the 
Forum, between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, and not far from the 
temple of the Penates. 

The mysteries and worship of Vesta were first brought into Italy by' 
iEneias from Phrygia ; where they were originally received from the 
East. Numa Pompilius built her a temple at Rome, into which no 
males were allowed to enter ; he also instituted those celebrated priest- 
esses who bore the name of Vestals, or Vestal virgins ; and who were, 
as their name indicates, consecrated to Vesta. Their existence at Alba 
Longa is connected with the earliest Roman traditions ; for Silvia, the 
mother of Romulus, was a member of the sisterhood. 

Their establishment in the city, in common with almost all matters 
connected with religion, is generally ascribed to Numa, who first ap- 
pointed four ; to which Tarquin added two more. They were origi- 
nally chosen by the monarchs ; but during the republic and empire, 
this duty was intrusted to the Pontifex Maximus.* The virgins chosen 
for this service were between six and ten years of age ; and if a suffi- 
cient number did not voluntarily present themselves as candidates for 
the office, twenty virgins were selected for a choice, and those among 
the number upon whom the lot fell, were obliged to become priestesses. 



* The institution of that high order of priests called pontifices, was attributed to Numa. 
The pontifex maximus, chief of these priests, was interpreter of all sacred rites, or 
rather a superintendent of religion; having. the care, not only of public sacrifices, Dut 
even of private rites and offerings, forbidding the people to depart from stated ceremo- 
nies, and teaching them how to honor and propitiate the gods. 



144 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Plebeians, as well as Patricians, were eligible to the office, but the choice 
fell on those who were born of good families, and whose persons were 
free from blemish or deformity. 

The time of their consecration to this service lasted thirty years. 
During the first ten years, the priestess was engaged in learning her 
mysterious duties ; the ten following were employed in discharging 
them with fidelity and sanctity ; and the ten last, in the instruction of 
those who had entered the novitiate ; while thus employed, she was 
bound by a solemn vow of chastity ; but after the time specified was 
completed, she was at liberty to throw aside the emblems of her office, 
return to the world, and even enter the marriage state. Few, however, 
availed themselves of these privileges ; those who did so were said to 
have lived in sorrow and remorse ; hence such a proceeding was con- 
sidered ominous, and priestesses generally died as they had lived, in 
the service of the goddess. 

The chief employment of the. Vestals was, to maintain the sacred 
fire which burned in honor of Yesta. If it ever happened to expire, 
all Rome was in consternation, as it was considered a direful presage, 
and was made the occasion of a general mourning ; and public specta- 
cles were forbidden until the crime was expiated by a severe punish- 
ment inflicted on the offender, to whose carelessness the calamity was 
to be attributed. The fire was again rekindled by friction. 

Another sacred charge of the Vestals was, to preserve a sacred 
pledge on which was supposed to depend the very existence of Rome, 
which, according to some authorities, was the Palladium of Troy, and 
others, the mysteries of the god of Samothrace. Their other ordinary 
duties consisted in presenting offerings to the goddess at stated times, 
and in sprinkling and purifying the shrine every morning with water; 
which, according to the institution of Numa, was to be drawn from the 
Egerian fount, although in later times it was considered lawful to use 
any water from a living spring or running stream ; but not such as had 
passed through pipes. When used for sacrificial purposes it was mixed 
with salt which had been pounded in a mortar, then placed in an earth- 
en jar, and dried in an oven. 

They also assisted at all the great public, holy rites, such as the fes- 
tivals of the Bona Dea, and the consecration of temples : the}' were 
invited to the public banquets ; and we are told that they were present 
at the solemn appeal made to the gods by Cicero during the conspiracy 
of Catiline. 



HESTIA OR VESTA. 145 



If a Vestal violated her vows of chastity, nothing could save her 
from a violent death. Numa ordered such to be stoned ; but a more 
cruel torture was devised by Tarquinius Priscus, and inflicted from 
that time till the abolishment of the order by Theodosius the Great. 
When condemned by the college of Pontifices, she was stripped of her 
vittse and other badges of office, scourged, attired like a corpse, placed 
in a close litter, and borne through the forum, attended by her weeping 
friends with all the ceremonies of a real funeral, to a rising ground 
called the Campus Sceleratus, just within the city walls, close to the 
Colline gate. There, a small vault was prepared under ground, con- 
taining a couch, a lamp, and a table with a little food. The Pontifex 
Maximus, having lifted up his hands to heaven and uttered a secret 
prayer, opened the litter, led forth the culprit, and placing her on the 
steps of the ladder which gave access to the subterranean cell, deliv- 
ered her over to the common executioner and his assistants, who con- 
ducted her down, drew up the ladder, and having filled the pit with 
earth until it was level with the surrounding ground, left her to perish, 
deprived of all the tributes of respect usually paid to the departed. 

The labors of the Vestals were unremitting, and the rules of the 
order rigidly enforced ; but as a compensation for their privations, 
extraordinary honors and privileges were granted them. They were 
maintained at the public cost, and from sums of money and land be- 
queathed from time to time to the corporation. From the moment of 
their consecration, they became, as it were, the property of the goddess 
alone, and were completely released from all parental authority without 
going through the forms of emancipation. They had a right to make 
a will, and to give evidence in a court of justice without taking an oath ; 
distinctions first conceded by a Horatian law to a certain Caia Tarratia, 
or Tufetia, and afterwards communicated to all belonging to the order. 

From the time of the triumviri, each was preceded by a lictor when 
she went abroad, and so great was the deference paid them by the 
magistrates, as well as the people, that the consuls themselves made 
way for them, bowing their fasces* as they passed. Augustus granted 

* Fa^i? \v-3r3 rods bound in the form of a bundle, and containing an axe in the mid- 
dle, the iron of which projected. These rods were carried by the lictors, or public offi- 
cers, who attendH. the superior magistrates at Rome. 

From the r^^sentations of the fasces, they appear to have been usually made of 
birch, but sc^/'times also of the f.wigs of the elm. They are said to have been de- 
rived from / ,".onia, a city of Etriria. 

'0 



146 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



to them all the rights of matrons who had borne three children, and 
assigned them a conspicuous place in the theatre ; a privilege they had 
previously enjoyed at gladiatorial shows. Great weight was attached 
to their intercession in behalf of those who were in danger and diffi- 
culty, of which we have a remarkable example in the entreaties which 
they addressed to Sulla on behalf of Julius Caesar, and if they chanced 
to meet a criminal as he was led to punishment, they had a right to de- 
mand his release, provided it could be proved that the encounter was 
accidental. Wills, even those of emperors, were committed to their 
charge, for when in such keeping they were considered inviolable ; and 
in like manner very solemn treaties, such as that of the triumvirs with 
Sextus Pompeius, were* placed in their hands. If any one died in 
office, her remains were interred within the walls of the city ; an honor 
seldom granted by the Romans. 

To offer insult to the Vestals was a capital crime, and if any one 
attempted to violate their chastity, he was publicly scourged to death 
in the Forum. 

The dress of the Vestals was a stola* over which was an upper vest- 
ment made of linen ; on the head they wore a close covering called 
infula, from which hung ribbons or vittae ; and in addition to this, they 
wore, when sacrificing, a peculiar head-dress called suffibulum, consist- 
ing of a piece of white cloth bordered with purple, oblong in shape, and 
secured by a clasp. In dress and general deportment, they were re- 
quired to observe the utmost simplicity and decorum ; as any fanciful 
ornaments in the one, or levity in the other, were always regarded with 
disgust and suspicion. From a passage in Pliny, we infer that their 
hair was cut off, probably at the period of their consecration ; whether 
this was repeated from time to time, does not appear ; but they are 
never represented with flowing locks. 

Annual festivals were celebrated by the Romans, in honor of Vesta, 
on the 9th of June, and were called Vestalia. Banquets were then 
prepared before the houses, and plates of meat were sent to the Vestals 
to be offered up to the goddess. Mill-stones were turned by asses, 



* A dress worn over the tunic, which came as low as the ankles or feet. It was 
fastened round the bodj- by a girdle, and over the shoulder by a clasp. It usually had 
sleeves, but not always. 

The stola was the characteristic dress of the Roman matrons, as the toga w is of the 



HEST1A OR VESTA. 147 



decked with garlands, as they were led in procession around the city ; 
ladies followed bare-footed to the temple of the goddess, where an altar 
was erected to Jupiter, surnamed Pistor. 

By the poets, Mercury and Vesta are made intimate friends : they 
are the beneficent teachers and keepers of men, in whose songs they 
are united, and represented as dwelling in friendly concord, and teach- 
ing the useful arts. 

Whenever ancient art ventured to represent Vesta, the goddess 
bore a flambeau in her hand ; but a mystical veil always covers her 
chaste form. An antique gem, preserved in a German museum, con- 
tains so complicated and mysterious a group, of which Vesta makes a 
component part, as to show clearly that the artist's only object was to 
indicate the mystery with which the goddess was covered. Pluto, or 
as he was likewise called, Jupiter Serapis, sitting on a throne, holds in 
his left hand a scythe, and with his right hand strokes the triple-headed 
Cerberus ; on his left stands Harpocrates, the god of silence, having 
his finger placed upon his lips ; and on his right, the veiled Vesta, 
with the torch in her hand ; Harpocrates carries a cornucopia ; these 
are combined emblems of the innermost, concealed, mysterious part of 
nature, from which life and fulness continually flow. 

Vesta, represented with the torch, is sometimes thought to be the 
ancient Vesta, who probably was the same as Terra. In the fictions 
of the ancients, the earlier and later deities are often confounded, and, 
as it were, lost in one another ; and since Earth, one of the pristine 
deities, no longer makes a distinct appearance among the moderns, she 
seemed to be renewed in Vesta, as Helios in Apollo. 



148 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



CYBELE. 




The Greeks renewed the fiction of Terra 
in Cybele, and considered her as the mother 
of all creatures, gods as well as men. The 
archetype of Cybele was likewise the great 
productive power that gives rise to all for- 
mations. She was conceived to be the ruler 
of the elements and the beginning of time ; 
the highest goddess of the heavens, as well 
as the queen of the lower world ; and even 
the representative of every deity, keeping 
the female character, because of her ever- 
producing power. 

Although this goddess is represented sitting in a chariot drawn by 
lions, and bearing a mural or tower crown upon her head, to indicate 
her all-subduing power, together with her sovereignty of the earth 
overspread with cities, yet this representation is merely an external 
cover for her incomprehensible formless character. 

In the temple of the great mother of life, at Pessinus in Galatia, a 
small stone of a blackish color, and rough, irregular surface, represented 
the Alma Mater. It was also the idea of this mysterious being which 
was hidden in the Egyptian Isis, whose temple bore this inscription, 
,c I am all that is, that was, and that will be, and no mortal has lifted 
my veil." 

In the same degree as Cybele herself was venerated, her priests (the 
Oorybantes) were despised and detested. Their sensuality was noto- 
rious through all antiquity ; and their own goddess was said to have 
taken a terrible vengeance on them for having approached her person 
too nearly. She drove them distracted, and in their fury they scourged, 
lacerated, and maimed themselves. Thus they ran about in wild ec- 
stasy, while the goddess looked triumphantly at the troop of unmanned, 
despicable wretches in her train. The frantic fury of the priests was 
not prejudicial to her veneration : the idea of her was always preserved 
in its original sublimity, comprehending the all-producing, all-fertilizing, 
and all-animating mother of nature. 

Cybele is generally represented in works of art, either as sitting in 
a chariot drawn by lions, or as riding upon a lion, and holding a tim- 
brel near her head as if listening to the sound. 



POSEIDON OR NEPTUNE. 149 

POSEIDON OR NEPTUNE. 

HOMERIC HYMN TO NEPTUNE. 

Neptune, the mighty marine god, I sing, 

Earth's mover, and the fruitless Ocean's king, 

That Helicon and iEgean deeps dost hold. 

Oh, thou Earth-shaker ! thy command two-fold 

The gods have sorted ; making thee of horses 

The awful tamer, and of naval forces 

The sure preserver. Hail ! Saturnian birth, 

Whose graceful green hair circles all the Earth. 

Bear a benignant mind, and helpful hand 

Lend thou, to all subjected to thy dread command. 

In the great division of the universe by Zeus, the empire of the sea 
was committed to Poseidon, who rises in imperial majesty as Pontos, 
Oceanos, and Nereus retreat to the shade. He was made the ruler 
of the waters ; his supreme command raised the stormy waves, and his 
mighty trident calmed the seditious floods. Not only the ocean, rivers, 
and fountains were subjected to him, but he also caused earthquakes 
at his pleasure, and raised islands from the depths of the sea, by a 
blow of his trident Homer represents him as rising from the depths 
of the sea, and in three steps crossing the whole horizon. li The moun- 
tains and the forests," says the poet, " trembled as he walked ; all the 
hosts of the sea rose to hail their king, and the waves fell back in awful 
respect." 

As god of the sea, Poseidon was entitled to more power than 
any other deity except Zeus ; but though descended from the same 
father as the Thunderer, Poseidon, like the element in which he reigns, 
is but a subordinate power. 

During the Trojan war, Iris was sent to him with a message from 
Zeus, warning him to beware of measuring himself with him who sways 
the thunderbolts, and to refrain from assisting the sons of Danaus. 
The shaker of the earth replied with boldness, saying, u However mighty 
Zeus may be, he has spoken very arrogantly. Are we not all the sons 
of Kronos and Rhea? — and is not the universe divided between us? 
He may terrify with such words his sons and daughters, but not me ". 
Iris reminded him that the elder brother is protected by the Erinnyes. 
Poseidon instantly complied with the will of the Thunderer, saying, 
' Thou hast spoken mildly, goddess ! It is well if a messenger knows 
what is useful.' (II. xv. 185.) 



150 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Polyphemus was deprived of his oniy eye by Ulysses ; and this injury 
done to his beloved son, by mortal hands, Poseidon left not unavenged, 
but severely punished the daring Ulysses, by rendering vain, as long 
as possible, all attempts made by the unfortunate traveller to regain 
his home. He made him endure all dangers and hardships that can 
befall a seafaring man ; and when, by the will e£ Fate, he must at last 
reach his native island, Poseidon avenged himself by transforming into 
a rock the innocent ship of the hospitable Phneacians. which had brought 
him thither. Thus dangerous was it, even to the favorite of Minerva, 
to offend the dreadful power of the resistless element 

When the Muses entertained themselves in the Aonian mountain 
with song, and play on the lyre, in so gay a manner that all the en- 
virons participated in their joy, and Helicon itself leaped under their 
feet, falling into a passion, Poseidon sent up Pegasos charging him to 
set limits to the mirth and noisy merriment of those revellers. On 
arriving at the top of the mount, Pegasos had only to paw the ground, 
to bring all to its quiet, proper course ; and from beneath his foot arose 
that well-known fountain, from which the poets sip their inspiration, 
and which from its origin is called Hippocrene. 

The archetype of Poseidon is the vast sea. which being, as it were, 
angry at all that is prominent, strives to reduce every thing to its own 
level. Therefore, when, during the siege of Troy, the Greeks were 
building a wall around their ships, to serve as a bulwark against their 
enemies, Poseidon was angry ; and hastening to Zeus, gave vent to the 
bitterness of his wrath in these words : " The renown of this wall will 
spread over the earth ; yet my own wall, which with the assistance of 
Apollo I built around Troy for Laomedon, will be forgotten." To 
which Zeus replied, " Illustrious shaker of the earth, if another god, 
less powerful than thou, should care for such a work as that, I should 
not wonder; but thy glory already reaches as far as the sun ; and thou 
wilt, I trust, as soon as the Greeks have departed, sink that wall into 
the sea, and cover the shores with sand, that no traces of its existence 
may remain." With such words Zeus upbraided him for his envy, as 
well as his regard for the works of mortal men. (II. vii. 546.) 

All that moves rapidly onward affords pleasure to the ruler of the 
waves. He bends over his spirited steeds, to encourage them, and the 
swiftly flying ship is his delight. Poets tell us, that the horse owes to 
him its existence, saying that he produced that animal by striking the 
ground with his trident. Hence he is called Hippias or Hippodromus. 



POSEIDON OR NEPTUNE. 15l 

and is esteemed the president of the horse race. They also make him 
the father of the winged Pegasfrs, and of Arion, the noblest steed that 
ever bore kings or heroes. Endowed with the swiftness of the wind, 
he threw off his rider in one of the Grecian games, to win the prize for 
himself. 

To the Egyptians, who hated the sea, and seldom left their own 
country, Poseidon was scarcely known ; but with all maritime nations 
he was a favorite deity. As the god of ships and all marine affairs, 
altars were consecrated and temples erected to his honor. 

The Libyans in particular held him in great veneration ; esteeming 
him above all other gods. His most celebrated temples were at the 
Corinthian Isthmus, at Onchestos, Helice, and Traezene. 

According to Herodotus, Neptune was originally an African or 
Libyan deity, and from them the Greeks derived his worship. Others 
have supposed that the Phoenicians first introduced him as a deity into 
Greece, and also a knowledge of the horse, and in that way they became 
associated together. It would seem, however, that there is a deeper 
meaning contained in this fable ; the horse being sacred to Neptune 
and the rivers, and employed as a general symbol of the waters. Hence 
it may have been assumed as one of the types of fertility, and in this 
signification may furnish a clue to the fable of Neptune and Ceres, and 
also throw some light on the narration of Pausanias, where he states 
that the Phigalenses dedicated a statue to- Ceres, having the figure of 
a woman in every part except the head, which was that of a horse. In 
one hand she held a dolphin, and in the other a dove. The ancients 
considered animals as the emblems of nature, and nature as containing 
the archetype of all divine representations ; therefore in their fictions, 
we find the animal world closely connected with the deities they wor- 
shipped. 

Some writers suppose that the Romans worshipped Neptune as 
Consus, the god of counsel j and as such, counsel being generally given 
in private, his altar was under ground, or in an obscure and private 
place, where sacrifices were offered to him. 

The Consualia, at Rome, were festivals instituted in honor of Consus. 
It was during one of these festivals that Romulus carried away the 
Sabine women, who had assembled as spectators of the games. 

The animals offered to him in sacrifice, were a black bull, rams, and 
a boar-pig ; and the Roman soothsayers always offered to him the gall 
of their victims, which in taste resembles the bitterness of sea water 



152 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Neptune was generally represented sitting in a chariot made of a 
scollop shell, and drawn by sea horses', or dolphins, but sometimes 
standing, holding his trident, guiding winged horses as his chariot flies 
over the sea, These sea horses had the tails of fishes, with only two 
feet, which were the fore-feet of a horse, according to the description 
given in Statius : 

" Good Neptune's steeds to rest are set up here «' 

In the iEgean gulf; whose fore-parts harness bear; 
Their hinder parts fish shap'd." 

In the grim aspect of Nep- 
tune is depicted the raging ele- 
ment over which he presides. 
He is often represented as hold- 
ing in his right hand the tri- 
dent, or the three-pointed scep- 
tre, the symbol of his power, 
and in his left, the reins by 
which he guides his proud cours- 
ers, and his garment waving in 
the tempest. A beautiful an- 
tique gem shows him coming 
out of the sea, treading with the 
whole weight of his power upon 
a rock, his right hand care- 
lessly thrown behind him, while 
the left shoulder bears his tri- 
dent. On a common medal of 
Adrian, Neptune is represented 
standing ; in his left hand he 
holds a dolphin, and in his right his peculiar sceptre, the trident, which 
he seems chiefly to use to rouse the waves, and lays it aside when he 
wishes to appease them ; the foot rests on a part of a ship, to indicate 
:hat he presides over the inland seas, more particularly the Mediterra- 
nean, which was the great, and almost the only scene of navigation 
among the Romans. 

Poetic, as well as plastic art, represents the king of the waters in 
majesty similar to Zeus ; but still, the expression of power and dignity 
in the former always appears subordinate. It is not that quiet, eminent 
power which commands with the brow of the eye, clears the sky with 




ISTHMIAN GAMES. 153 



a smile, and is seldom prompted to anger by restraint. On the con- 
trary, with Poseidon, the expression of anger and wrath is prevailing. 
He chides the wind, which at the instigation of Hera had ruffled the 
waves without his consent; and the expressive "Quos ego!" (Jin. i. 
133) with which he threatens and overawes them, has, even in modern 
times, been frequently referred to by plastic art, with the view of 
exhibiting his character in appropriate representation. 

The Isthmian games, one of the four great national festivals of the 
Greeks, derived their name from the Corinthian Isthmus, where they 
were celebrated. At the narrowest part of the Isthmus, between the 
coast of the Saronic and the western foot of the (Enian hills, was the 
temple of Poseidon ; and near it was a stadium and a theatre of white 
marble. The entrance to the temple was adorned with statues of the 
victors in the Isthmian games, and with groves of pine trees. 

These games were said originally to have been instituted in honor 
of Melicertes, who was also called Palaemon. Their original mode of 
celebration, as Plutarch remarks, partook more of the character of mys- 
teries than of a great national assembly with its various amusements, 
and was performed at night. Subsequent to the age of Theseus, the 
Isthmian games were celebrated in honor of Poseidon ; this innovation 
is ascribed to Theseus himself, who, according to some legends, was 
the son of Poseidon, and who, in the institution of the games, or Isth- 
mian solemnities, is said to have imitated Hercules, the founder of the 
Olympian games. 

The celebration of the Isthmia was henceforth conducted by the 
Corinthians, but Theseus had reserved for his Athenians some honor- 
able distinctions. Those Athenians who attended the Isthmia, sailed 
across the Saronic gulf in a sacred vessel, and an honorary place as 
large as the sail of their vessel was assigned to them during their cele- 
bration of the games. In time of war, a sacred truce was concluded, 
and the Athenians were invited to attend at the solemnities. The 
Eleans took no part in the games, and various stories were invented 
to account for this singular circumstance. It is a very probable con- 
jecture of Wachsmuth, that the Isthmia, after the changes ascribed to 
Theseus, were merely a panegyri of the Ionians of Peloponnesus, and 
those of Attica ; for it should be observed that Poseidon was an Ionian 
deity, whose worship appears to have been unknown to the Dorians. 

During the reign of the Cypselids at Corinth, the celebration of the 



154 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Isthmian games was suspended for seventy years ; but after this time 
they gradually rose to the rank of a national, Greek festival. 

In the forty-ninth Olympiad, they became periodical ; and were 
henceforth regularly celebrated every third year of every Olympiad, 
and with this regularity the solemnities continued tc be observed by 
the Greeks down to a very late period. In 228 B. C, the Romans 
were allowed the privilege of taking part in the Isthmia, and it was at 
this solemnity that in 196 B. C. Flaminius proclaimed, before an innu- 
merable assembly, the independence of Greece. After the fall of 
Corinth in 1 46 B. C. the Sicyonians were honored with the privilege 
of conducting the Isthmian games ; but when the town of Corinth was 
rebuilt by Julius Caesar, the right of conducting the solemnities was 
restored to the Corinthians ; and their celebration was continued till 
Christianity became the state religion of the Roman empire. 

The season of the Isthmian solemnities was, like that of all the 
great, national festivals, distinguished by general rejoicing and feasting. 
The contests and games were the same as those of Olympia ; and em- 
braced all the varieties of athletic performances, such as wrestling, the 
pancratium, together with horse and chariot racing. Musical and 
poetical contests were likewise carried on : and in the latter, women 
were allowed to take part, as we must infer from Plutarch, who, on the 
authority of Polemo, states that in the treasury of Sicyon ; there was 
a golden book which had been presented to it by Aristomache, the 
poetess, after she had gained the victory at the Isthmia. At a late 
period of the Roman Empire, the character of the games at the Isthmia 
appears greatly altered ; for in the letter of the Emperor Julian, above 
referred to, it is stated that the Corinthians purchased bears and pan- 
thers for the purpose of exhibiting their fights at the Isthmia ; and it 
is not improbable that the custom of introducing fights of animals on 
this occasion commenced soon after the time of Caesar. 

The prize of a victor at the Isthmian games consisted at first of a 
garland of pine leaves and afterwards of a wreath of ivy ; but in the 
end, the ivy was again superseded by a pine garland. Simple as such 
a reward was, a victor in these games gained the greatest distinction 
and honor among his countrymen ; and the victory not only rendered 
the individual who obtained it a subject of admiration, but shed lustre 
over his family and the whole town or community to which he belonged. 

Hence Solon established by a law that every Athenian who gained 
a victory at the Isthmian games, should receive from the public treas- 



ISTHMIAN GAMES. 155 



ury a reward of one hundred drachmae. His victory was generally 
celebrated in lofty odes, of which we still possess some beautiful speci- 
mens among the Odes of Pindar. 

" The only vestiges of the buildings connected with the celebration 
of the Isthmian games which now remain, are those of the stadium in 
the southern part of the enclosure ; the shell of a theatre, nearly three 
hundred yards to the north of it, and the foundations of the sacred 
precinct, which contained the temple of Neptune and Palaemon. Imme- 
diately to the east of the enclosure are substructions of the long line of 
wall which stretched from the Saronic gulf on the east to the Corinth- 
ian on the west, and defended the Isthmus ; a little beyond, upon 
the western shore, are the excavations for the canal of three miles and 
a half, by which Nero designed to unite the waters of these two gulfs, 
and to make the Peloponnesus an island. 

" Returning towards Corinth from this part of the coast of the Cj- 
rinthian gulf, at a quarter of a mile from the eastern entrance of the 
modern town, are the remains of an ancient amphitheatre. It lies 
from north to south, and measures about one hundred yards from one 
end of its length to the other, while its breadth is half that distance. 
Several of the seats and viae are still visible, hewn in the rocky soil. 

" We have thus had before our eyes three objects which exercised a 
powerful influence upon the tastes and manners of the Corinthians of 
old — their Theatre, their Stadium, and their Amphitheatre. While, 
brought together as they are now by being almost the only survivors 
among the public amusements of ancient Corinth, they remind us of 
the spectacles once exhibited within them, they at the same time recall 
to our recollection, in the most forcible manner, the circumstance that 
the Apostle, who spent nearly two years in this city, refers, in his 
Epistle, which he addressed to its inhabitants, to all these three objects, 
or to circumstances connected with them. Familiar as they were, both 
to him and to them, they supplied the most vivid illustration of the 
expressions he used, and of the emotions he both felt and wished to in- 
spire. This Amphitheatre, for instance, afforded to the readers of the 
Epistle a specimen of what he had endured, who, for the sake of the 
truth, as he there tells them, had fought with beasts at Ephesus. His 
words again, — ' We are become a theatre to the world, to angels, and 
to men,' — came home with double force to the minds of those who saw 
how the mere actors of fictitious dramas were exposed in the eye of day 



156 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



to the gaze and censure of innumerable spectators in this theatre upoD 
their own shore ; and nothing could give a more vivid picture of the 
Christian's duty, difficulties, and reward, than the question, ' Know ye 
not that they who run in the stadium, run all, but one receiveth the 
prize 1 and every one who contendeth, is temperate in all things ? they, 
indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown (a pine tree or * 
parsley chaplet), but we an incorruptible.' — coupled with the allusion 
which follows, to the gymnastic and athletic exercises practised befor* 
their eyes near the same spot." 



HADES OR PLUTO. 

Hades was the god of Hell, 
of riches, and funeral obsequies. 
His name, Hades, or Aides, 
signifies the invisible or un- 
known ; a name indicating of 
itself a gloom which no mortal 
could penetrate. He was also 
called the subterranean or Sty- 
gian Jupiter, and plastic art 
represented him like imperial 
Jove, but with gloomy, rather 
than benignant features. His 
Latin name was Dis, signifying 
wealth, — so called because 
wealth comes from the bowels 
of the earth ; and because, as 
Cicero observes, all things pro- 
ceed from the earth, and return 
to it again under his direction. 

He is sometimes represented as having on his head an ancient corn 
measure, the emblem of Earth's fertility. At others with a helmet, 
which renders the wearer invisible, and which is supposed to indicate 
the safety that men find in the grave ; or with his garment drawn over 
his head to intimate the god concealed. 

Hades was much renowned among the Egyptians, who had frequent 
representations of funeral ceremonies. In their representations of him, 
a radiant crown surrounds the head, and a serpent is twined round his 
body, sometimes accompanied with the signs of the zodiac. According 




HADES OR PLUTO. 157 

to some mycologists, Hades, as well as many other gods of the Egyp- 
tians, was originally worshipped as the sun ; and Zeus, Poseidon, and 
Hades are considered as the symbols of one solar year, diversified 
according to the changes of the seasons. 

Tartaros, or Erebos, was the abode of night, where, at the remotest 
boundary of the Earth, the sun was supposed to sink into the sea. 
There, too, was the mansion of Hades, beneath which, in a dark prison, 
the Titans bemoaned their fate. The boundary of the earth was sup- 
posed to be the Atlantic Ocean ; and there, near the abode of Night, 
fiction also placed those blissful islands where reigns everlasting spring. 
There, also, in the same dusky horizon of the west, the sky rested upon 
the shoulders of Atlas, and there the golden fruit was guarded by the 
Hesperides. 

In Greece, the entrance to Hades' dominions was supposed to be 
near the promontory of Tsenarus ; and farther west, in Thesprotia, two 
streams took their rise, which we again find in Orcus ; the rivers Ache- 
ron and Cocytus. Here Theseus and Pirithoos are said to have de- 
scended to the dark abode of the shades. Still farther west, on the 
coast of Italy, imagination discovered another fit place for an entrance 
from the higher to the lower world, where a dark and spacious cavern 
led to a gloomy grove contiguous to the Lake Avernus, the poisonous 
exhalations of which were fatal to every bird that attempted to fly over 
it, and permitted no man to dwell within its borders. Fable says, that 
the residence of Pluto was so obscure and gloomy that all the goddesses 
refused to marry him, and he therefore determined to obtain a wife by 
force, and that, after a violent earthquake, he visited the island of 
Sicily, where he saw Persephone, the daughter of Ceres, gathering 
flowers in the plains of Enna, surrounded by her female attendants, 
and immediately carried her away in his chariot, concealing his retreat 
by opening a passage for himself with a blow of his trident. 

As wife of Pluto, and queen of hell, Proserpina presided over the 
death of mankind ; and according to the opinion of the ancients, no 
one could die if the goddess herself, or Atropos, the minister, did not 
cut off one of the hairs from the head. From this superstitious belief, 
it was customary to strew some of the hair of the deceased at the door 
of the house as an offering to Proserpina. 

The Sicilians were very exact in their worship of Proserpina ; and 
as they believed that the fountain Cyane had risen from the earth at 



/ 



158 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

the very place where Pluto had opened himself a passage, they an- 
nually sacrificed there a bull, the blood of which was suffered to flow 
into the water. Her worship was universal, and she was known by 
the different names of Theogamia, Libitina, Hecate, Juno Inferna, 
etc., etc. 

Hades is represented as sitting on a throne, surrounded by the most 
gloomy darkness ; his countenance severe and frowning, holding in his 
hand a two-pointed sceptre, and also a key, which signifies that when 
once the dead are received into his kingdom, the gates are locked 
against them, and thence there is no regress. 

" To the shades you go a down-hill, easy way, 
But to return and re-enjoy the day, 
This is a work, a labor." — JEn. vi. 

Hades was considered as inexorable, and for that reason no temples 
were erected to him as to the rest of the superior gods. Sacrifices of 
black sheep and a bull were offered to him in the night. Their blood 
was not sprinkled upon altars, or received into vessels, as at other 
sacrifices, but was permitted to run into the earth, as if it could pene- 
trate the realms of the god. Among plants, the cypress and maiden- 
hair were sacred to him, as well as every thing deemed inauspicious, 
particularly the number two.* According to some of the ancient wri- 
ters, Hades sat on a throne of sulphur, from which issued the rivers 
Lethe, Cocytus, Phlegethon, and Acheron. The triple-headed dog, 
Cerberos, watched at his feet ; the Harpies hovered around him ; Per- 
sephone sat on his left hand, and near her the Erinnyes, their heads 
wreathed with snakes, while the Parcae, each holding the symbol of 
her office, completed the group. According to others, the gates to his 
dominions were watched by the triple-headed dog Cerberos ; and be- 
fore they can be reached, four rivers must be crossed, the very names 
of which fill the soul with terror. The first is Acheron, the sighing 
river, a son of Earth. He was born in a cave, and having an uncon- 
querable aversion to light, ran down into Orcus, where he was changed 



* The pagans looked upon an odd number as the more perfect, and the symbol of 
concord, because it cannot be divided into two equal parts, as the even number, may, 
and is therefore the symbol of division. This prejudice was not only the reason why 
the first month was consecrated to the celestial and the secor.d to the terrestrial leities, 
but it also gave birch to many superstitious practices. 



HADES OR PLUTO. 159 



into the river which still retains his name. Styx, terrible above all, is 
a lake rather than a river, and has already been mentioned among the 
ancient deities. The third river, Cocytus, flows out of the river Styx, 
and the murmur of its waters, the sound of which imitates the howlings 
of the damned, is inexpressibly dismal ; Phlegethon, the fourth river, 
rolls slowly along its waves of fire. 

The entrance to the infernal regions, called Avernus, is described 
as having around it a host of dreadful forms ; Disease, Old Age, Ter- 
ror, Hunger, Death, War, Discord, and the Furies, the avengers of 
guilt, with snaky hair, and whips of scorpions. Near this dismal eav- 
ern is the road to the river Acheron, whither resort the departed spirits, 
in order to obtain a passage over. Charon, the aged, surly boatman, 
receives them into his boat, if they have been honored with funeral 
rites, but inexorably rejects those who have not On the other side 
of the river is the gate leading to the palace of Hades, the sovereign 
of those dreary realms, guarded by the triple-headed Cerberos, which 
is always on the watch. 

Within this seat of horror, are first seen the souls of infants who 
expired as soon as born. Then those who destroyed themselves, or 
were put to death unjustly. Beyond them, wandering in myrtle groves, 
are the victims to love and despair. Then succeed the abodes of he- 
roes. Not far from them, is seen the dread tribunal, where Minos, 
JEacos, and Rhadamthys administer strict justice, and pass the irre- 
vocable sentence. Then Tartaros, the tremendous prison, surrounded 
by three massy walls, having three gates of solid brass, round which 
the flaming Phlegethon rolls its waves of fire, and Cocytus extends its 
stagnant marsh. Here, likewise, is the river Styx, by which the gods 
swear their inviolable oath ; and Lethe, whose waters produced forget- 
fulness of past events to those who drank them. In Tartaros, ac- 
cording to Virgil, those were punished who had been disobedient te 
parents, traitors, faithless ministers, and such as had undertaken 
unjust or cruel wars ; or had betrayed their friends for the sake of 
gain. According to Ovid, it was the place where the Danai'des, Tan- 
talos, Sisyphos, and others were punished. 

The Elysian fields are represented as adorned with all the beauties 
of nature which can soothe and delight the mind, and was the abode 
of the heroic and virtuous. Hills, covered with fragrant shrubs, de- 
lightful valleys, flowery plains, shady groves, lucid streams, mild and 
balmy air, and gentle and unclouded sunshine, all conspire to rende* 



160 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

the Elysian fields the seat of happiness and tranquillity. It was the 
habitation of the blessed ; particularly of the souls of those who had 
lived in the golden age, before man was stained with guilt. Here the 
souls of the just, freed from the passions and prejudices of mortality, 
ranged from grove to grove, enjoying the pleasures of friendship and 
contemplation, until, at the command of Zeus, they drank of the waters 
of Lethe, and the oblivious draught caused them instantly to lose all 
remembrance of the past. They then returned again in human form 
to the earth, where, forgetful of the joys of Elysium, they patiently 
endured the cares and sorrows of humanity, until the close of a well- 
spent life again restored them to the mansions of the just. 

This fiction of the Greeks and Romans is borrowed from the funeral 
rites of the Egyptians. Near the Egyptian towns was a certain tract 
of ground appropriated as a common burying-place, and Diodorua 
Siculus gives an exact description of the customs practised at Mem- 
phis. According to him, their burying-place was on the other side of 
the Lake Acherusia, on the shore of which sat a tribunal of forty three 
judges, who inquired into the merits of the deceased person ; and if 
he had been disobedient to the laws, he was refused the rites of inter- 
ment. When no accuser appeared, or he who deposed against the 
deceased was convicted of falsehood, their lamentations for him ceased, 
and they commended his excellent education, his respect for religion, 
his equity, chastity, and other virtues. All the attendants applauded 
these praises, and congratulated the deceased upon being prepared to 
enter the eternal abode of the virtuous. 

On the shore of the lake was a severe and incorruptible boatman, 
who, by order of the judges, and never upon any other terms, received 
the deceased into his boat. The kings of Egypt were treated with the 
same rigor, and never admitted into the boat without the permission 
of the judges. The other side of the lake to which they were conveyed, 
was a plain embellished with meadows, brooks, and groves. This place 
was called Elizout, or the Elysian fields — that is, a habitation of 
repose or of joy. At the entrance of the abode was the figure of a dog, 
with three pair of jaws, called Cerberos. This symbol was expressive 
of their affection for the departed ; the dog being, of all animals, the 
emblem of attachment. To the figure of the dog they gave three heads 
or throats, to express the three cries made over the friend's grave, 
according to the custom which granted that honor to none but good 



HADES OR PLUTO. 161 



men. Therefore, the placing this figure over the head of a newly 
buried person, signified his having been honored with the lamentations 
of his family, and the cries which friends never fail to utter over the 
graves of those whom they have loved and valued for their good quali- 
ties. 

These practices among the Egyptians were instructions addressed to 
the people, who were given to understand by such ceremonies and sym- 
bols, that death was followed by an account which must be given before 
an inflexible tribunal ; but that what was so dreadful to the wicked, 
was to the good only a passage to a state of happiness and bliss. 

The whole fiction of Pluto, or Hades, alludes to the grave, whose 
narrow bounds imagination enlarged into a world of shades. The king- 
dom of Hades is therefore represented as a desolate empire, and his 
palace a narrow mansion. There is the same allusion to decay in the 
old and leaky boat of Charon, which only creeps, as it were, across the 
rivers, taking up much slime in its crevices. The dead themselves are 
represented like a world of dreams ; the empty shades appearing and 
disappearing in a moment, yet sensible of what they had formerly been, 
and of what they had possessed ; and still strive to accomplish those 
pursuits in which they had been engaged when living in the upper 
world, like a man who works and fatigues himself during a dream with- 
out attaining his object. 

When Ulysses, by the command of Circe, went down into the lower 
world, the souls of all the departed whom he had known during his 
life-time assembled round the ditch into which he shed the blood of 
his victims. His mother presented herself to him ; but when he wished 
to embrace her. the empty shade retreated, telling him, that after the 
body was destroyed, the souls evaded every touch, like a dream. The 
shade of Agamemnon stretched forth its arms towards his friend and 
counsellor, but had not the power to embrace him. Ulysses also ad- 
dressed the shade of Achilles, congratulating him on the renown he 
had enjoyed while living, and for his being now esteemed among the 
dead. To which Achilles replied, that were it possible, he would 
return to life and serve as a poor day-laborer for scanty wages, rather 
than reign in his present abode over all the departed. The shade of 
Heracles too appeared to Ulysses, although he himself had his seat 
among the celestials. 

" The character of the Homeric Inferno is very simple. Two rivers, 

11 



162 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

a rock, some tall poplars and barren willows, were all its scenery. Very 
different indeed from subsequent representations of the same regions. 
This rocky glen, through which the Acheron tumbles over steep and 
dark cliffs, into the Paramythian plain ; what a contrast does it present 
to those later, and especially Roman representations of the subterrane- 
an world, in which a splendid vestibule leads through massive walls, 
and a peristyle of adamant into lengthening corridors, and thence into 
groves of myrtle and fragrant laurels — into the Inferno, in short, of 
an age and nation which introduced a Baian luxury even into its 
dreariest abodes, and dressed up the gloomy mansion of Pluto with the 
pomp of a palace of the Cassars. 

" Very different, too, the principles which suggested these later de- 
scriptions, from the melancholy language in which the Achilles of 
Homer declares upon this spot that he had rather cultivate those 
swampy fields as a day-laborer, than enjoy the honors of a royal state 
among the dead ; and very different the influence of this diversity of 
belief on the character of the respective nations by which it was enter- 
tained ! 

" Three or four cottages, a ruined church, and a paltry fortress, are 
all the artificial adjuncts of this spot. They stand on the verge of the 
plain, on the right bank of the Acheron. The place is called Aia Grlyky. 
Above them, to the north-east, rise the lofty mountains of Suli, one 
crowning the other, and some bearing on their summits those proud 
castles which nothing but famine and avarice could storm. The Ache- 
ron falls from these hills through a deep and rocky gorge ; leaving 
these cottages to the right, it expands into a turbid and eddying stream, 
and then winds quietly through a flat, marshy country (in which it 
forms the Acherusian lake and unites itself with the Cocytus), into the 
Ionian Sea. 

" The port of Grlyky, into which the Acheron discharges itself, seems 
to have communicated its name to this place. Its adoption may also 
have been suggested by a desire to merge all the former sadness of the 
spot in such an agreeable euphemism. The feeling which in other 
cases appeased the most awful deities, and beguiled the most painful 
diseases, by the charm of a name, might also hope to sweeten the river 
of woe ; the name, too, it is evident, was conferred at a time when 
Christianity gave an additional reason for the choice, as well as another 
meaning to it when made. The ruined church at Aia Grlyky stands 
on the site of an ancient temple. The fragments of eight or nine 



DEMETER OR CERES. 163 

granite columns of the former structure still remain. We are in- 
clined to believe that this was the oracular shrine, where the spirits 
of the dead were consulted. It was natural to inquire of the departed 
in the place where they were supposed to have passed into another state 
of being. The banks of the Acheron, therefore, were the private resort 
of necromancy. There was also high authority for this practice. 
Homer no sooner places here the sons of his seers and Heroes, than 
he begins to consult them on the spot. We see no willows at present, 
such as are placed by him on the banks of the Acheron. There are, 
indeed, few trees of any kind in the plain, and none of any size ; a few 
oriental plane-trees, some low tamarisks by the water's edge, two or 
three wild fig-trees, and some bright-leaved pomegranates — a somewhat 
melancholy group, but not inappropriate. A plucked fruit of the latter 
tree, bursting with the crimson grains which give it its name, and 
placed as it was in ancient times, in the hands of a sculptured figure 
of a deceased person reclining on a sarcophagus containing his ashes, 
served as a pleasing symbol, to express the assurance that though his 
life was now plucked from its stem, yet that it was not gathered too 
early, but ripely teeming with many seeds of rich fruit. The price of 
a few grains of the same tree gained also a queen for the nether world." 
In a painting discovered about the end of the last century, in an old 
burial-place of the Massonian family, Hades and Persephone are rep- 
resented sitting on thrones, whilst Hermes is introducing the ghost of 
a young woman, who seems intimidated at the stern look of Hades. 
Behind, stands her mother, waiting to conduct her to some grove in 
Elysium. Hades holds a sceptre in his hand and has a veil over his head 

DEMETER OR CERES. 

Of the three august daughters of Kronos and Rhea, Hera alone is 
the reigning queen of Heaven : while Hestia and Demeter exercise 
their beneficent influence upon the earth ; the one impregnating it with 
sacred, fertilizing warmth, and the other calling forth the nourishing 
ear of corn. 

Demeter, the mother of Persephone, was evidently a goddess of the 
earth, whom some ancient system married to Zeus, the god of the 
Heavens. In Homer, she is but slightly mentioned, and she does not 
appear among the deities of Olympus. She seems to have been early 
distinguished from the goddess called Earth, and to have been regarded 
%9 the protectress of the growing corn, and of agriculture in general. 



164 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Demeter was the happy mother of Persephone ; to whom, however, 
the sweet light of day was granted but a short time ; youth and beauty 
in her soon becoming a prey of inexorable Orcus. 

Persephone, sang the Homerid, was in the Nysian plain with the 
ocean-nymphs gathering flowers. She plucked the rose, the violet, the 
Crocus, the hyacinth > when she beheld a Narcissus of surprising beauty, 
an object of amazement to " all immortal gods and mortal men," for 
one hundred flowers grew from one root, 

"And with its fragrant smell wide heaven above 
And all earth laugh' d, and the sea's briny flood." 

Unconscious of danger, the maiden stretched forth her hand to seize 
the wondrous flower, when, suddenly, the wide earth gaped ; Aidoneus 
in his golden chariot rose, and catching the terrified goddess, carried 
her off in it, shrieking to her father for aid, unheard and unseen by gods 
or mortals, save only by Hecate, the daughter of Persseos, who heard 
her as she sat in her cave, and by king Helios, whose eye nothing on 
earth escapes. 

So long as Persephone beheld the earth and the starry heaven, the 
fishy sea, and beams of the sun, so long she hoped to see her mother 
and the tribes of the gods ; and the tops of the mountains and the 
depths of the sea resounded with her voice. At length her mother 
heard ; she tore her head attire with grief, cast a dark robe around 
her, and like a bird hurried over moist and dry. Of all she inquired 
tidings of her lost daughter ; but neither gods, nor men, nor birds 
could give her intelligence. Nine days she wandered over the earth 
with flaming torches in her hand ; she tasted not of nectar nor ambro- 
sia, and never once entered the bath. On the tenth morning Hecate 
met her ; but she could not tell who had carried away Persephone. 
Together they proceeded to Helios ; they stand at the head of his 
horses, and Demeter entreats that he will say who is the ravisher. 
The god of the Sun gives the required information, telling her that it 
was Aidoneus, who, by the permission of her sire, had carried Perse- 
phone away to be his queen ; he then exhorts the goddess to patience, 
by dwelling on the rank and dignity of the ravisher. 

Helios urges on his steeds ; the goddess, incensed at the conduct of 
Zeus, abandoned the society of the gods, and came and dwelt among 
men. ' But she now was heedless of her person and no one recognized 
her. Under the guise of an old woman — " such," says the poet. : - a? 



DEMElER OR CERES. 165 



are the nurses of law-dispensing king's children, and house-keepers, in 
resounding houses," she came to Eleusis and sat down by a well, be- 
neath the shade of an olive. The three beautiful daughters of Keleos, 
a prince of that place, coming to the well to draw water, and seeing 
the goddess, inquired who she was, and why she did not go into the 
town. Demeter told them that her name was Dos, and that she had 
been carried off by the pirates from Crete, but that when they got on 
shore at Thoricos, she had contrived to make her escape, and wandered 
thither. She entreats them to tell her where she is ; and wishing them 
young husbands and as many children as they may desire, begs that 
they will endeavor to procure her a service in a respectable family. 

The princess Callidice tells the goddess the names of the five princes, 
who with her father governed Eleusis, each of whose wives would, she 
was sure, be most happy to receive into her family a person who looked 
so god-like : but she prays her not to be precipitate, but to wait till 
she had consulted her mother, Metaneira, who had a young son in the 
cradle, of whom, if the stranger could have the nursing, she would 
obtain a large recompense. 

The goddess bowed her thanks, and the princesses took up their 
pitchers and went home. As soon as they had related their adventure 
to their mother, she agreed to hire the nurse at large wages : 

And they as fawns or heifers in spring-time 
Bound on the mead when satiate with food ; 
So they, the folds fast-holding of their robes 
Lovely, along the hollow cartway ran ; 
Their locks upon their shoulders flying wide, 
Like unto yellow flowers. 

The goddess rose and accompanied them. As she entered the house 
a divine splendor shone all around. Metaneira, filled with awe, offered 
the goddess her own seat, which, however, she declined. Iambe, the 
serving- maid, then prepared one for her, where she sat in silence, think- 
ing of her " deep-bosomed" daughter, till Iambe, by her tricks, con- 
trived to make her smile and even laugh. Metaneira offered her a cup 
of wine, which she declined, and would only drink the kt/keon, or mixture 
of flour and water. She undertook the task of rearing the babe, who 
was named Demophoon, and beneath her care " he throve like a god." 
He ate no food ; but Demeter breathed on him as he lay in her bosom, 
and anointed him with ambrosia, and every night she hid him " like a 



166 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

torch within the strength of fire," unknown to his parents, who mar- 
velled at his growth. 

It was the design of Demeter to make him immortal ; but the cu- 
riosity and folly of Metaneira deprived him of the intended gift. She 
watched one night, and seeing what the nurse was about, shrieked with 
affright and horror. The goddess threw the infant on the ground, 
declaring what he had lost by the inconsiderateness of his mother, but 
announcing that he would be great and honored, since he had u sat in 
her lap, and slept in her arms." She then tells who she is, and directs 
that the people of Eleusis should raise an altar and temple to her with- 
out the town on the hill Callichoros. 

Thus having saidj the goddess changed her size 
And form, old age off-flinging, and around 
Beauty respired ; from her fragrant robes 
A lovely scent was scattered, and afar 
Shone light emitted from her skin divine : 
And yellow locks upon her shoulders waved ; 
While, as from lightning, all the house was filled 
With splendor. 

She left the house, and the maidens waking at the noise found their 
infant brother lying on the ground. They took him up, and kindling 
a fire, prepared to wash him ; but he cried bitterly, finding himself in 
the hands of such unskilful nurses. 

In the morning the wonders of the night were narrated to Keleos, 
who laid the matter before the people, and the temple was speedily 
raised. The mourning goddess took up her abode in it, but a dismal 
year came upon mankind ; and the earth yielded no produce. In vain 
the oxen drew the curved ploughs in the fields ; in vain was the seed 
of barley cast in the ground ; " well-garlanded Demeter" would suffer 
no increase. The whole race of man ran the risk of perishing, and the 
dwellers of Olympos of losing gifts and sacrifices, had not Zeus dis- 
covered the danger and thought on a remedy. 

He despatches " gold-winged Iris" to Eleusis to invite Demeter back 
to Olympos, but the dissatisfied goddess will not comply with the call. 
All the other gods are sent on the same errand, and to as little pur- 
pose. Gifts and honors are proffered in vain ; she will not ascend to 
Olympos, or suffer the earth to bring forth, until she shall have seen 
her daughter. 

Finding there was no other remedy, Zeus sends " gpld-rodded Argos* 



DEMETER OR CERES. 167 

Blayer" to Erebos, to endeavor to prevail on Hades to suffer Persephone 
to see the light. Hermes obeyed, quickly reached the " secret places 
of earth," and found the king at home seated on a couch with his wife, 
who was mourning for her mother. On making known to Aidoneus 
the wish of Zeus, " the King of the Subterraneans smiled with his 
brows" and yielded compliance. He kindly addressed Persephone, 
granting her permission to return to her mother. The goddess in- 
stantly sprang up with joy, and heedlessly swallowed a pomegranate 
which Hades presented to her. 

Then many-ruling Ai'doneus yoked 

His steeds immortal to the golden car: 

She mounts the chariot, and beside her mounts 

Strong Argos-slayer, holding in his hands 

The reins and whip : forth from the house he rushed, 

And not unwillingly the coursers flew. 

Quickly the long road they have gone ; not sea, 

Nor streams of water, nor the grassy dales, 

Nor hills retard the immortal coursers' speed, 

But o'er them going, they cut the air profound. 

Hermes conducted his fair charge safe to Eleusis : Demeter, on 
seeing her, " rushed to her like a Msenas on the wood shaded hill," 
and Persephone sprang from the car " like a bird," and kissed her 
mother's hands and head. 

When their joy had a little subsided, Demeter anxiously inquired if 
her daughter had tasted any thing while below ; for if she had not, she 
would be free to spend her whole time with her mother ; whereas, if 
but one morsel had passed her lips, nothing could save her from spend- 
ing one third of the year with her husband ; and the other two she 
could pass with her and the gods : 

And when in spring-time with sweet smelling flowers 
Of various kinds the earth doth bloom, thou'lt come 
From gloomy darkness back — a mighty joy 
To gods and mortal men. 

Persephone ingenuously confesses the swallowing of the grain of 
pomegranate, and then relates to her mother the story of her adven 
tures. They pass the day in delightful converse : 

And joy they mutually received and gave. 



168 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

" Bright-veiled Hecate" arrives to congratulate Persephone, and 
henceforward becomes her attendant. Zeus sends Rhea to invite them 
back to Heaven. Demeter now complies, 

And instant, from the deep-soiled cornfields fruit 
Sent up ; with leaves and flowers the whole wide earth 
Was laden. 

She taught " Triptolemus, horse-lashing Diodes, the strength of 
Eumolpos, and Keleos the leader of the people," the mode of perform- 
ing her sacred rites. The goddess then returned to Olympos. a But 
come," cries the Homerid, 

But come, thou goddess who dost keep the land 
Of odorous Eleusis, and round-flowed 
Paros, and rocky Anthron, Deo queen, 
Mistress, bright-giver, season-bringer, come ; 
Thyself and child, Persephoneia fair, 
Grant freely, for my song, the means of life. 
But I will think of thee and other songs. 



Throughout the whole of this attractive fiction, may be traced the 
idea of the mysterious development of the grain hidden in the lap of 
the earth, and of the inward, secret-life of nature. There is no other 
object found in nature, in which to appearance life and death border 
so closely together, as in the grain of seed buried in the earth, never 
again to re-appear to the eye of man ; but, at the moment when life 
seems entirely extinct, a fuller and richer existence begins anew. De- 
meter, who is said first to have bestowed the blessing of grain upon 
mortal man, is in the chain of divine beings, that one, who, through 
the medium of her person, carries the blessed influence of the sky 
down to the dark dominions of Hades. Hades, who is called the sub- 
terranean or Stygian Jupiter, is married to the beautiful daughter of 
Jupiter Olympius, and in this manner the opposite ideas of life and 
death being united in the person of Persephone, she connects with a 
mysterious band the high and the deep — Olympos and Orcus. 

Upon ancient marble coffins, the ravishment of Persephone is often 
met with ; and in the mysterious festivals which were celebrated in 
honor of Demeter and her daughter, it seems as if the close connection 
of the terrible and beautiful had been intended to fill the minds of the 
initiated with astonishment and awe ; and at last, aH that appeared 



DEMETER OR CERES. 



opposite and contrary in the beginning, melted away, and was lost in 
harmony and beauty. 

Demeter is represented as one of the most placid and meek among 
the heathen deities ; yet she made Erisicthon. who violated one of her 
groves, sensible of her power by afflicting him with perpetual hunger. 
At another time, during her search for her daughter, she entered a 
cottage to slake her burning thirst, and was scoffed at by a rude boy, 
because of her eagerness in drinking. 

Indignant at the ignominy, she bespattered the offender with water, 
by which he was immediately transformed into a spotted lizard, and in 
this shape, bore witness to the power of the formidable goddess. 

Demeter is commonly represented as holding a sickle in her right 
hand, and in her left, the torch which she lighted at Mount iEtna. 
At her feet are coiled the dragons which drew her chariot ; a wreath 
of wheaten ears confines her golden tresses, and a cornucopia is gen- 
erally placed near her, to indicate the plenty produced by agriculture. 
She is also represented with a garland of corn upon her head ; in one 
hand holding a poppy, and in the other a lighted torch. Again she ap- 
pears as a countrywoman, on the back of an ox, carrying a basket on 
her left arm, and holding a hoe ; and sometimes riding in a chariot 
drawn by winged horses. In the Vatican, are some fine antique statues 
of this goddess ; one of them is nearly nine feet high, and was for 
nearly three centuries the principal ornament of the theatre of Pompey 
at Rome. Another of these is. smaller, not above three feet six inches 
high. 

The Romans paid great adoration to Ceres, and her festivals were 
celebrated yearly by the Roman matrons, during eight days in the 
month of April. These matrons abstained for several days from wine, 
and every carnal enjoyment ; and at the festivals, bore lighted torches 
in commemoration of the goddess ; and whoever attended them without 
a previous initiation, was punished with death. These festivals were 
called Cerealia, and were the same as the Thesmophoria of the Greeks. 

Sicily was supposed to be the favorite retreat of Ceres, and Diodorus 
says that she and her daughter first made their appearance to mankind 
in Sicily, which Pluto received as a nuptial dowry from Jupiter. The 
Sicilians made a yearly sacrifice to Ceres, every man according to his 
ability; and the fountain of Cyane, through which Pluto opened him- 
self a passage when conveying away Proserpina, was publicly honored 
with an offering of bulls, and the blood of the victims was shed in the 



170 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

waters of the fountain. Besides these, other ceremonies were observed 
in honor of the goddess who had so peculiarly favored the island. The 
commemoration of Proserpina's disappearance was celebrated about the 
beginning of harvest, and the search of G^res, about the time that the 
corn is sown in the earth. The latter festivals continued six successive 
days. 

Attica, which has been so eminently distinguished by the goddess, 
greatly remembered her favors in the celebration of the Eleusinian 
mysteries. 

This great festival was celebrated every fourth year by the Celeans 
and Philiasians, as also by the Lacedemonians, Parrhasians, and Cre- 
tans ; but more particularly by the Atticans at Eleusis, where it was 
introduced by Eumolpos B. C. 1356, and was the most celebrated of 
all the religious ceremonies of Greece. 

Eacn of the gods had, besides the public and open, a secret worship 
paid to him, to which none were admitted who had not previously been 
through the preparatory ceremonies of initiation. This secret worship 
was termed the mysteries, and was the most sacred part of the pagan 
religion. 

The first original mysteries of which we have any account, were 
those of Osiris or Isis in Egypt, from whence they were derived 
by the G-reeks. They were observed in various places, and always with 
the same object, viz. to inculcate the doctrine of a future state of re- 
wards and punishments ; but those celebrated at Athens in honor of 
Ceres, were termed, by way of eminence, The Mysteries ; and were so 
superstitiously observed, that if any one ever revealed them, it was 
supposed he would be followed by divine vengeance. 

In cultivating ihe doctrine of a future life, it was taught that the 
initiated would be happier after death than other mortals ; that while 
the souls of the profane stuck fast to mire and filth, and remained in 
darkness, the souls of the initiated wing their way to the islands of 
bliss and the habitations of the gods. But lest it should be mistaken 
that any other means than a virtuous life should entitle men to future 
happiness, the restoration of the soul to its original purity was openly 
proclaimed as the object of the mysteries. " It was the end and design 
of initiation," says Plato, " to restore the soul to that state from whence 
it fell, as from its entire native seat of perfection." They contrived 
that every thing should tend to show the necessity of virtue, as appeara 



ELEUSIJHAN MYSTERIES. 171 



from Epictetus. <; Thus the mysteries became useful ; thus we see the 
true spirit of them, when we begin to apprehend that every thing there- 
in was instituted by the ancients for the amendment of life." Porphyry 
gives us some of those moral precepts which were enforced in the 
mysteries ; as to honor parents, to offer up fruits to the gods, and to 
forbear cruelty to animals. It was required that the aspirant to the 
mysteries should be of a pure and unblemished character, and free even 
from the suspicion of any notorious crime ; and to ascertain the truth 
on the.se requisitions, he was severely interrogated by the priests, or 
hierophantes, who impressed him with the same sense of his obligation 
to conceal nothing, as is now done at the Roman confessional. 

During the celebration of the mysteries, the greatest purity and 
elevation of mind was enjoined upon the votaries. " When you sacrifice 
or pray," says Epictetus to Arrian, " go with a prepared purity of mind, 
and with dispositions so previously disposed, as are required of you 
when you approach the ancient rites and mysteries." And Proclus 
tells us, that " the mysteries and the initiation drew the souls of men 
from a material, sensual, and merely human life, and joined them in 
communion with the gods." Nor was a less degree of purity required 
of the initiated for their future conduct. They were obliged by solemn 
engagements to commence a new life of strict piety and virtue, which 
was done by a severe course of penance. According to Gregory Nazi- 
anzen, no one could be initiated into the mysteries of Mithras, until 
he had undergone all sorts of mortifying trials, and approved himself 
holy and impassible. Under this discipline and these promises, the 
initiated were esteemed the only happy men : and the advantages con- 
ferred by the ceremonies of initiation, both here and hereafter, made 
its subjects an object of universal regard. Persons of all ages and 
sexes were initiated, and it was considered so serious a crime to neglect 
that part of the religion, that the accusation of it contributed' to the 
death of Socrates. 

The chief minister who officiated at these festivals was called a hiero- 
phantes or mystagogos, the revealer of sacred things. He was a citizen 
of Athens, and held his office during life ; though, among the Celeans 
and Philiasians, it was limited to the period of four years. The priest 
was obliged to devote himself wholly to the deities, and his life must 
be chaste and single. The Hierophant had three attendants ; the first 
was a torch bearer, and was permitted to marry ; the second was a 
sacred Herald ; and the third administered at the altar. Besides these, 



172 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

there were other inferior officers, who took particular care to see that 
every thing was done according to custom. The first was one of the 
archons, whose duty was to offer prayers and sacrifices, and to see that 
there was no indecency or irregularity during the celebration. Four 
others were elected by the people called curators, or Epimeletes ; one 
from the sacred family of the Eumolpids ;* another was one of the 
Ceryces, and the rest from among the citizens. This celebration, 
sacred to Ceres and Proserpina, lasted for nine successive days from 
the I Oth to the 20th of September. These days were consecrated to 
the ceremonies of preparation and purification, the particulars of which 
were founded upon the story of Ceres' adventures in search of Proser- 
pina. The singing of sacred hymns, in honor of the goddess, always 
formed a part of the service. 

The first day of celebration was called the assembly, as the worship- 
pers then met together ; the second day they were commanded to pu- 
rify themselves by bathing in the sea ; — on the third day sacrifices were 
offered ; chiefly a mullet, and also barley from the field of Eleusis. 
These oblations were considered so sacred, that the priests were not 
permitted to partake of them, as at other sacrifices. On the fourth 
day they made a solemn procession, while on every side the people 
shouted, Hail, Ceres ! Women followed carrying baskets, in which 
were sesamum, carded wool, grains of salt, a serpent, pomegranates, etc., 
etc. The night of the fifth day they ran about with torches ; the sixth 
day the statue of Inachus, holding a torch, was carried in solemn pro- 
cession from Ceranicus to Eleusis ; the statue, as well as those who 
accompanied it, was crowned with myrtle, and nothing was heard but 
singing and noisy merriment. The way through which they issued 
from the city was called the Sacred Way ; on the bridge over the 
Cephissus they derided those that passed by ; and after passing this 



* The Eumolpids were the priests of Demeter, at the celebration of her mysteries. 
All causes relating to impiety or profanation were referred to their judgment; and the 
decision, though occasionally severe, was generally considered impartial. They were 
descended from Eumolpos, a king of Thrace, who was made priest of Demeter by 
Erectheus, king of Athens ; and, after this appointment, became so powerful that he 
maintained a war against Erectheus, which proved fatal to both. Peace was re-estab- 
lished among their descendants, on condition that the priesthood should for ever remain 
in the family of Eumolpos, and the regal power in the house of Erectheus. 

The priesthood continued in the family of Eumolpos 1200 years; and this is still 
more remarkable, as he who was once appointed to the holy office, was obliged to re 
main in perpetual celibacy. 






ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 173 



bridge, they entered Eleusis, by a place called the mystical entrance. 
On the seventh day were sports in which the victors were rewarded 
with a measure of barley, as that grain was first sown in Eleusis. On 
the eighth day the mysteries were celebrated a second time, when those 
who had not been initiated were admitted by a repetition of the lesser 
mysteries. The ninth and last day of the festival, two vessels were 
filled with wine, one of which was placed towards the east, and the othor 
towards the west ; after the repetition of some mystical words, they 
were both thrown down, and the wine being spilt on the ground, was 
offered as an oblation to the goddess. 

The road from Athens to Eleusis on which the procession passed, 
was in some respects the most remarkable in Greece. Year by year, 
in the autumnal season, on the sixth day of the Eleusinian mysteries, 
the figure of Bacchus — not the Theban deity, but the youthful son of 
Ceres, and the giver of the vine to man — crowned with a chaplet of 
myrtle, and holding a torch in his hand, was carried in procession ; he 
was followed over hill and plain by thousands of worshippers, clad in 
festal attire, and wearing garlands of the same leaves as those which 
were woven round the head of the object of their devotion, and chanting 
his praise in strains of solemn and harmonious adoration. 

The stone pavement of the ancient road which this procession fol- 
lowed, still remains entire in some parts of the plain near the sea-coast ; 
on its surface the tracks of the wheels which passed over it in former 
days are still visible. They remind us of the slow trains of Eleusinian 
cars in which the women of Athens went along it from their own city 
to that of Eleusis. 

But not merely the women of Athens — the mothers of Miltiades and 
Cimon, of Themistocles and of Pericles — nor only the youth and men 
of the city have passed over this paved way, to visit and participate in 
this most august ceremony of the heathen world ; for these stones have 
also been trodden by the feet of her poets, her statesmen, and her phi- 
losophers, all tending to the same place, and on the same errand ; and 
again, not merely by them, but also by Kings and Princes, by Satraps 
of Asia and by Monarchs of Egypt, by Consuls and Praetors of Rome, 
by her wise, and eloquent, and learned men — by her Augustus Caesars, 
her Ciceroes, her Horaces, and her Yirgils — going on their way to 
Eleusis to pay their homage to the awful deities of that place, and to 
receive, as they believed, by initiation into the myteries of their 



174 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

worship, both a clearer knowledge of the most abstruse and perplexing 
questions which could be presented to the intellectual contemplation 
of man. and also a fuller assurance of their own personal felicity both 
in the present and future world. 

To this road a remarkable contrast is presented in character, scenery, 
and circumstances, by that of the capital of Italy, which bore the same 
name as this which leads from Athens to Eleusis. The sacred way of 
Rome, we mean to say, affords a remarkable parallel to the sacred way 
of Athens. These two roads, it is worthy of observation, are, as it were, 
the representations of the peculiar character, genius, and influence of 
the people to which they respectively belong. Each of them exhibits 
to the eye and mind of the traveller along them, the very objects which 
would be selected as the most appropriate characteristics of the pursuits 
and tastes, the qualifications and achievements, by which each of the 
two nations in question was peculiarly distinguished. 

The via sacra of Rome starts from the Colosseum ; it passes under 
arches of triumph ; it traverses the Roman forum, and terminates in 
the Capitol. Thus it begins its course with pointing to the scene of 
the gladiatorial shows which afforded a savage pleasure to assembled 
thousands of the imperial city in that vast amphitheatre, that splendid 
disgrace of Rome. By the triumphal arches which span it, it refers to 
the military conquests which gained for Rome the title of mistress of 
the world ; it speaks of the cars of the conqueror, of the captives in 
chains which passed over it, of the triumphal processions of victorious 
armies which moved along it, laden with spoil and decorated with tro- 
phies, some from the most distant regions of the earth. Again, the 
Rostra and Senate House of the Forum through which it passes, supply 
a memorial of the grave and dignified eloquence and wisdom which 
controlled the people and guided the Senate of Rome ; of that elo- 
quence and, wisdom which governed provinces, and ratified peace, 
and made laws, and returned answers to foreign kings and nations ; 
and lastly, from the summit of the Capitol, whither all these triumphal 
processions tended, as to the goal and limit of their course, to offer 
prayers and spoils and thanks after their victories to the Capitoline 
Jove, it seems, as it were, audibly to declare that the consummation of 
the hopes and aspirations of Rome was military glory ; that conquest 
and empire were her mysteries ; that they were the temple to which 
she marched along her Sacred Way ; that this was the initiation by 
which she raised herself above the nations of the earth ; — this the Apo- 



ELETJSINIAN MYSTERIES, 175 

theosis by which she became a partaker of the immortal dignity of her 
own deities. 

But the Sacred Way which led from Athens to Eleusis was of a very 
different character. It issued from the western and principal gate of 
the Athenian city into the most beautiful of her suburbs ; here in the 
Ceranicus, as it was called, were the monuments of her great men, 
monuments decorated with the ornaments of poetry and sculpture ; 
and among them the orations were spoken over the graves of those who 
had fallen in their country's cause, which made their fate an object to 
their survivors and friends rather of congratulation than of grief. It 
then pursued its course through the olive groves of Plato, and the 
Academy ; it crossed the stream of the Cephissus ; it mounted the hill 
of the iEgaleos ; it passed by the temples of Apollo and Yenus, and 
descended into the Sacred Plain ; it ran through a long avenue of 
tombs of priests, and poets, and philosophers ; it coasted the bay of 
Eleusis, which, girt as it is on all sides (with the exception of two 
narrow channels) by majestic mountains, presents the appearance of a 
beautiful lake ; and at length, as the termination of its course, it ar- 
rived at the foot of the ample hill of Eleusis, crowned with marble 
porticoes and spacious courts, and with the stupendous pile of the 
temple of Ceres, celebrated as the work of the most skilful architects, 
and venerable for its sanctity and its mysteries, which claimed for 
Eleusis the title of the religious capital of Greece. 

In its course it had passed within sight of Colonos on the right and 
Salamis on the left, one the birthplace of Sophocles, and the other that 
of Euripides ; and it was ended at Eleusis, which was the native city 
of iEschylus. 

Thus did the Sacred Way, in its commencement, its career, and its 
conclusion, make an appeal to those peculiar objects both of nature and 
of art which obtained for Athens a moral, intellectual, ?.r.d religious 
supremacy over the nations of the world, of greater extern and perma- 
nence than that military sway which was exercised ovrv 'num by the 
invincible arm of Rome. 

Of the temple of Ceres at Eleusis, few vestiges vi*#r remain. It 
stood on an elevated platform at the eastern extremity of the rock on 
which the city was built. It was approached by a p^rtitso, similar to 
that at the western side of the Acropolis at Athens. Thus these two 



176 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Propylaea, which were both the work of Pericles, looked towards each 
other. 

The entrance through this vestibule led to another of smaller dimen- 
sions, which opened into a vast enclosure, in which the temple itself 
stood, which was the largest in Greece. It was faced on the south by 
a portico of twelve columns, and the interior of the cella was divided 
by four rows of pillars parallel to each other and to the portico, and on 
which the roof of the fabric was supported. 

iEschylus was summoned before the religious tribunal at Athens, 
on a charge of having divulged, in one of his dramas, the secrets which 
were revealed to the initiated in this place ; and the traveller Pausa- 
nias was forbidden in a dream to communicate the information he re- 
ceived here with respect to the mystical signification of some of the 
objects of adoration at Eleusis ; nor are the expressions of Horace on 
the same subject an insignificant indication of the awe with which men 
shrank from the sacrilege, of which he who made such a revelation was 
supposed to be guilty. It would, therefore, be a vain and presump- 
tuous enterprise to attempt to describe, at this time, what they who 
alone could tell were least willing to express. 

But some of the external circumstances which attended the celebra- 
tion of the Eleusinian mysteries are not involved in the same obscurity. 
We are still enabled, while standing within the sacred enclosure, and 
on the marble pavement of the temple of Ceres, to revive in our minds 
some of the scenes which gave to this place, in ancient times, a solem- 
nity and a splendor, the impression of which was never erased from the 
memory of those who had once felt its effects. 

The fifth day of the sacred festival was distinguished by a magnifi- 
cent procession of the initiated, who were clad in purple robes, and 
bore on their heads crowns of myrtle ; the priests led the way into the 
interior of the temple through the southern portico, which has been 
described. The worshippers followed in pairs, each bearing a torch, 
and in solemn silence. But the evening of the tenth day of this august 
pageant was the most remarkable. It brought with it the consumma- 
tion of the mystic ceremonies. On it, the initiated were admitted for 
the first time to a full enjoyment of the privileges which the mysteries 
conferred. Having gone through the previous rites of fasting and 
purification, they were clad in the sacred fawn skin, and led at even- 
tide into the vestibule of the temple. The doors of the building itself 
were as yet closed. Then the profane were commanded by the priests 



ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 177 



with a loud voice to retire. The worshippers remained alone. Pre- 
sently strange sounds were heard ; dreadful apparitions, as of dying 
men, were seen ; lightnings flashed through the thick darkness in which 
they were enveloped, and thunders rolled around them ; light and 
gloom succeeded each other with rapid interchange. After these pre- 
liminaries, at" length the doors of the temple were thrown open. Its 
interior shone with one blaze of light. The votaries were then led to 
the feet of the statue of the goddess, who was clad in the most gorgeous 
attire ; in her presence their temples were encircled by the priests with 
the sacred wreath of myrtle, which was intended to direct their thoughts 
to the myrtle groves of the blessed in those happy isles to which they 
would be carried after death ; their eyes were dazzled with the most 
vivid and beautiful colors, and their ears charmed with the most melo- 
dious sounds, both rendered more enchanting by their contrast with 
those fearful and ghastly objects which just before had been offered 
to their senses. They were now admitted to behold visions of the 
creation of the universe, to see the workings of the divine agency by 
which the machine of the world was regulated and controlled, to con- 
template the state of society which prevailed upon the earth before the 
visit of Ceres to Attica, and to witness the introduction of agriculture, 
of sound laws, and of gentle manners, which followed the steps of that 
goddess ; to recognize the immortality of the soul, as typified by the 
concealment of corn sown in the earth, by its revival in the green blade, 
and by its full ripeness in the golden harvest ; or, as the same idea was 
otherwise expressed, by the abduction of Proserpina, the daughter of 
Ceres, to the region of darkness, in order that she might pass six months 
beneath the earth, and then arise again to spend an equal time in the 
realms of light and joy. Above all, they were invited to view the 
spectacle of that happy state in which they themselves, the initiated, 
were to exist hereafter. These revelations contained the greatest hap- 
piness to which man could aspire in this life, and assured him of such 
a bliss as nothing could exceed or diminish in the next. 

Besides the various rites and ceremonies described above, several 
others are mentioned, but it is not known to which day they belonged ; 
the Eleusinian games, which Mersius assigns to the seventh day, are 
said to have been the most ancient in Greece. In these contests, the 
prize of the victors consisted of ears of barley. It was considered the 
greatest profanation of the Eleusinia, for any" to come as a supplicant 
to the temple with an olive branch, and whoever did so, was put to 

12 



178 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

death without trial, or fined one thousand drachmas. At other festi- 
vals, as well as at Eleusis, no man could be seized or arrested foi any 
offence during the celebration. The garments in which the votaries 
were initiated, were held sacred, and considered as efficacious in avert 
ing evils, charms, and incantations. 

The Eleusinian mysteries lasted about eighteen hundred years ; long 
surviving the independence of Greece. Attempts to suppress them 
were made by the Emperor Yalentinian, but he met with strong oppo- 
sition ; and they were finally abolished by Theodosius the Great. 

Respecting the nature and end of these mysteries, various opinions 
have been entertained by modern scholars. The following are some 
of the results of inquiries made by the learned and judicious Lobeck. 

In the very early ages of Greece and Italy, and probably of most 
countries, the inhabitants of the various independent districts into 
which they were divided, had very little communication with each 
other ; and a stranger was regarded as little better than an enemy. 
Each state had its favorite deities, under whose special protection it 
was supposed to be, and each deity was propitiated by sacrifices and 
ceremonies which were different in different places. It is further to be 
recollected, that the Greeks believed their gods to be very little superior 
in moral qualities to themselves, and they feared that if promises of 
more splendid and abundant sacrifices and offerings were made to them 
they might not be able to resist the temptation. As the best mode of 
escaping the calamity of being deserted by their patrons, they adopted 
the expedient of concealing their names, and excluding strangers from 
their worship. Private families in like manner excluded their fellow 
citizens from their family sacrifices ; and in those states where ancient 
aerolites and the like were preserved as ancient Palladia, the sight of 
them was restricted to the magistrates and the principal persons in the 
state. 

The worship of Ceres and Proserpina was the national and secret 
religion of the Eleusinians. from which the Athenians were of course 
excluded, as well as the other Greeks ; but when Eleusis was con- 
quered, and the two states coalesced, the Athenians became participa- 
tors in the worship of these deities. Gradually, with the advance of 
knowledge, and the decline of superstition and national illiberality, 
admission to witness the* solemn rites eelebrated each year at Eleusis. 
was extended to all Greeks of either sex and of every rank provided 



/ 



ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 179 



they came at the proper time, had committed no inexpiable offence, had 
performed the requisite previous ceremonies, and were introduced by 
an Athenian citizen. These mysteries, as they were termed, were per- 
formed with some splendor at the expense of the state, and under the 
superintendence of the magistrates ; hence it follows, as a necessary 
consequence, that the rites could have contained nothing that was 
grossly immoral. 

The ancient writers are full of the praises of the Eleusinian myste- 
ries, of the advantage of being initiated, and the favor of the gods in 
life, and the cheerful hopes in death which resulted in consequence. 
Hence occasion has been taken to assert, that a system of religion little 
inferior to pure Christianity was taught in them. But these hopes, 
and this tranquillity of mind, and favor of Heaven, are easily account- 
ed for without having recourse to so absurd a supposition. Every act 
performed in obedience to the will of Heaven, is believed to draw down 
its favor on the performer. The Mussulman makes his pilgrimage to 
the Kaaba at Mecca : the Catholic to Loretto, Compostella, or else- 
where ; and each is persuaded that, by having done so, he has secured 
the divine favor. So the Greek, who was initiated at Eleusis (the mys- 
teries of which place, owing to the fame in which Athens stood, and 
the splendor and magnificence with which they were performed, eclipsed 
all others), retained ever after, a lively sense of the happiness which he 
enjoyed when admitted to view the interior of the illuminated temple, 
and the sacred relics which it contained ; when to his excited imagi- 
nation the very gods themselves seemed to descend from their Olym- 
pian abodes, amid the solemn hymns of the officiating priests. Hence 
there naturally arose a persuasion, that the benign regards of the gods 
were bent upon him through life ; and as man can never divest himself 
of the belief of his continued existence* after death, he cherishes a vivid 
hope of enjoying bliss in the life to come. 

It was evidently the principle already stated, of seeking to discover 
the causes of remarkable appearances, which gave origin to most of the 
ideas respecting the recondite sense of the actions and ceremonies 
which took place in the Eleusinian mysteries. The stranger, dazzled 
and awed by his own conception of the sacredness and importance of 
all he beheld, conceived that nothing there could be without some inys; 
terious meaning. What this might be, he inquired of the officiating 
ministers ; who, as various passages in Pausanias and Herodotus show, 
were seldom without a legend, or sacred account, as it was called, tc 



i$0 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

explain the dress or ceremony, which perhaps owed its true origin to 
the caprice or sportive humor of a ruder period. Or, if the initiated 
person himself was endowed with inventive power, he explained the 
appearances according to the general system of philosophy which he 
had embraced. It was thus that Porphyry conceived the Hierophant 
to represent the Platonic Demiurgus, or creator of the world ; the 
torch-bearer, the sun ; the altar-man, the moon ; the Herald, Hermes ; 
and the other ministers, the inferior stars. 

These fancies of priests and philosophers have been formed by mod 
ern writers into a complete system ; and St. Croix in particular describes 
tho Eleusinian mysteries with as much minuteness as if he himself had 
been actually initiated. 

It is to be observed in conclusion, with respect to the charges of im- 
piety and immorality brought against the Eleusinian mysteries by the 
fathers of the church, that this arose from their confounding them with 
the Bacchic, Isiac, Mithraic, and other private mysteries, mostly im- 
ported from Asia, and which were undoubtedly liable to the imputation. 
It must always be remembered, that the Eleusinia were public, and 
celebrated by the state. 

PHCEBOS-APOLLO. 

The Grecian Apollo is one of those divine representations that are 
completely finished to the finest strokes and features. Fancy, adorn- 
ing him with the charms of eternal youth, calls him the far-shooting 
god, who bends the silver bow ; and the father of poetry, who plays on 
the golden harp. But since Apollo cannot fulfil the various tasks of 
being on earth the divine patron and teacher of poesy and music — of 
delighting the gods on Olympos with his lyre and song, and at the 
same time driving the chariot of the sun, the imagination of the poets 
seems to have blended the two persons of Helios and Apollo merely for 
the sake of unity, while in. fact they recognized two different beings; 
the one going up and down the sky as the shining sun, the other wan- 
dering on the earth, a new born, immortal youth, with golden locks, 
charming the hearts of gods and men with play and song. 

The chief archetype of Apollo is the sun's rays, in eternal and youth- 
ful splendor. It assumes human form, and with it, rises to perfect 
beauty, in which the very expression of destructive power melts away 
in the harmony of the youthful features. As in the rays of the sun, 
that are both beneficent and destructive, fertilizing and producing 



PH(EBOS-APOLLO. 181 



decay, creation and destruction are united, so the divine form of which 
those rays are the archetype, unites in itself both terror and mildness. 
For the god of beauty and youth, who delights in lyre and song, carries 
at the same time the quiver upon his shoulder, draws the silver bow, 
and in wrath sends his arrows among men to cause by their means 
contagious sickness ; or he kills them with his soft weapons. 

The twins of Latona, Apollo and Diana, are the twin deities of death, 
who divide the human race between them. Apollo takes man for his aim, 
and Diana, woman ; and thus they kill with mild arrow, those who are 
overcome with old age ; — like the leaves of verdant trees, that keep 
themselves in a state of sempiternal bloom and fresh color, merely by 
successively falling to decay, or like those sacred doves of Jupiter, 
which, flying by the dangerous Scylla, always lose one of their compa- 
ny, which is instantly replaced by the father of the gods, lest the num- 
ber be impaired. Thus one generation of men imperceptibly makes 
room for another ; and whoever falls asleep overpowered by age and 
infirmity, is said, in the language of poetry, to have been killed by a 
soothing weapon, either from the hand of Apollo or Diana. 

That this was the way of thinking among the ancients, appears from 
the manner in which they express themselves. u The small, happy 
island where I was born," relates the swineherd Eumseos to Ulysses. 
" is situated beneath a healthy and benevolent sky ; there men are 
not swept away by odious sickness ; but when old age comes over 
them, Diana or Apollo appears with silver bow, and kills them with 
arrows that give no pain." (Od. xv. 402.) And when Ulysses, in the 
lower world, asks the shade of his mother in what manner she had 
died, he receives the answer, " Not Diana's soft arrow has killed me, 
nor has sickness taken me away ; but the longing after thee, my son, 
and my grief for thy fate, deprived me of sweet life." (Od. xi. 196. 

Neither Apollo nor Diana, however, has always this pleasing and 
beneficent appearance. From time to time, the god of the silver bow 
is seen angry at the inhabitants of the earth ; and then he walks forth 
like a black cloud, or the dark night itself, and the quiver rings on his 
back as he moves on with hasty anger. " Then he sends his arrows 
into the camp of the Greeks, there to produce contagious sickness, 
which sweeps away man by man, and suffers not the flames of the 
funeral piles to be extinguished." (11. i. 44.) And in the same man- 
ner the wrath of Diana brings destruction upon Actceon and the chil 
dren of Niobe. 



182 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Still, serenity, benevolence, and loveliness constitute the chief char- 
acter of Apollo ; and he whose arrow wounds, heals again. Not only 
is he venerated under the name of the Healing, but he is also the 
father and teacher of iEsculapius, who is acquainted with the means 
of soothing every pain, and knows a medicine for every sickness, and 
who, by his art, can save even from death itself. 

With reference to this turn of character, an ancient poet, endeavor 
ing to fill the mind with serenity and joy, suggests the following con- 
solation : " If thou art afflicted now, and mourning, it will not always 
be thus ; for not always does Apollo bend his bow ; soon will he awak- 
en again the silent Muse to play and song." (Horace, Lib. ii. Od. x ) 

In all these fictions, the image of Helios is to be recognized : it is 
the animating sunbeam which awakens the heart to gaiety and song. 
It is also the all-seeing, the all-discovering sunbeam, that assumed a 
form in the prophesying Apollo, as well as in Apollo the herdsman ; 
for those flocks that graze without herdsmen and shepherds, are, as 
fiction asserts, watched by the all-seeing sun. Yet, all these grand 
features are embodied in the more tender form of that Apollo whose 
parents were Jupiter and Latona. He is the shepherd of king Ad- 
metus' flocks ; he inspires the divining Pythia ; he leads the choruses 
of the Muses. 

Fable says that on the isle of Delos he awoke to life ; and soon after 
his birth, the divine power that dwelt in him speedily developed it- 
self The august goddesses, Themis, Rhea, Dione, and Aphrodite, were 
present at his birth, and wrapped him in soft habiliments. Thetis 
gave him nectar and ambrosia ; and when he had tasted the divine 
food, his swathing bands no longer confined him ; the divine boy stood 
on his feet, and even his tongue was loosed. " The golden lyre." cried 
he, " shall be my joy ; the carved bow my pleasure ; and in oracles 
will I reveal the events of futurity." And when he had thus spoken, 
now a blooming youth, he walked forth majestically over mountains 
and islands. He came to Pytho, with its craggy summits, and there 
arose, as swift as thought, into the assembly of the celestials. There 
then at once reigned lyre and song; the Graces tenderly embracing 
their friends and companions, the Horse, joined with them in the 
Olympian dance ; while the Muses, with harmonious voice, sang the 
joy of the blessed immortals ; the grief of mortal men, who know no 
means of escaping old age and death. 

When Apollo afterwards descended from the Olympian seat, he 



PHffiBOS-APOLLO. 183 



killed, on the very spot from which his oracles were to spread over the 
earth, the dragon Python, and the beams of the sun caused the slain 
monster to decay. There, in the deep, rocky valley of Parnassus, 
stood the famous temple of Apollo, and over the cleft of a cavern, the 
tripod was placed on which the priestess sat, through whose mouth the 
god revealed the future. 

The tradition of the birth of Apollo on the floating island of Delos, is 
taken from the Egyptian mythology, which asserts that the son of 
Vulcan, supposed to be Orus, was saved by his mother Isis from the 
persecution of Typhon, and intrusted to the care of Latona, in the isl- 
and of Chemnis. The ancient origin of the god is clearly shown, even 
in his very name ; and a very striking analogy exists between the 
Apollo of the Greeks and the Crishna of the Hindoos. Both are in- 
ventors of the flute ; Crishna is deceived by the nymph Tulasi, as 
Apollo is by Daphne ; and the two maidens are each changed into 
trees, of which the Tulasi is sacred to Crishna, and the Bay tree to 
Apollo. The victory of Crishna over the serpent Calya-naga, on the 
borders of Yamuna, recalls to mind that of Apollo over the serpent 
Python ; and it is worthy of remark, that the vanquished reptiles re- 
spectively participate in the homage that is rendered to the victors. 

It appears that the ancient Egyptians, after having ascertained the 
great benefit of the inundation, changed the name of their evil genius, 
the water monster, from Ob to Python, which had reference to the 
deadly effects of the miasmata, arising from the steam of the mud 
which the deluge had left upon the earth ; and in this, he is plainly 
making an allusion to Typhon, which, by a simple transposition, is the 
same name. In making Python spring from the slime of the deluge, 
does not the poet intend to point out the noxious vapors that rise in 
Egypt after the Nile has subsided 1 And when he says that Apollo 
slew him with his arrows, does he not conceal, under this emblem, the 
victory of Orus over Typhon, or, at least, the triumphs of the sun- 
beams over the vapors of the Nile 1 Python, says Bailey, is derived 
from Putho to putrify, and the serpent Python being slain by Apollo, 
is thus interpreted : by Python is understood the ruin of the waters ; 
Apollo slew this serpent with his arrows ; that is, the beams of the 
sun dispersed the noxious vapors, which destroyed man like a devour 
ing serpent. 

A very strong aflinity. exists between the religious systems of Egypt 
and Greece. We find the same animal, the wolf, which, by its oblique 



184 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

course, typified the path of the star of day, consecrated to the sun, both 
at Licopolis and Delphi. This emblem transfers to the G-reek tradi- 
tions, the fables relative to the combats of Osiris. The Egyptian comes 
to the aid of his son Horus under the figure of a wolf; and Latona. 
the mother of Apollo, disguises herself in the same form when she 
quits the Hyperborean region to take refuge in Delos. 

In the festival of the Daphnephoria, celebrated every ninth year, in 
honor of Apollo, it is impossible not to see an astronomical character. 
It took its name from the laurel, or bay tree, which the finest youths 
of the city carried in solemn procession, and which was adorned with 
flowers and branches of olives. To an olive tree, decorated in its turn 
with branches of laurel and flowers intertwined, and the lowest part 
covered with a veil of purple, were suspended brazen globes of different 
sizes, types of the sun and planets, and ornamented with purple gar 
lands, the number of which (three hundred and sixty -five) was the 
symbol of the solar year. On the altar, too, burned a flame, the agita- 
tion, color, and crackling of which served to reveal the future ; a species 
of divination peculiar to the sacerdotal order, and which prevailed also 
at Olympia in Elis, the centre of most of the sacerdotal usages of the 
day. 

At the head of the procession walked a youth, whose father and 
mother must be living. This youth was, according to Pausanias, 
chosen priest of Apollo every year, and called Bay-Bearer. He was 
always strong, of a handsome figure, and selected from the most dis- 
tinguished families of Thebes. Immediately before this youthful priest, 
walked his nearest kinsman, who bore the adorned olive wood. The 
priest followed, bearing in his hand a bay -branch ; his hair dishevelled 
and floating, wearing a golden crown, and a magnificent robe, which 
reached down to his feet, and a kind of shoe which was introduced by 
Iphicrates ; behind the priest followed a choir of maidens, with boughs 
in their hands, and singing hymns. In this manner the procession 
went to the temple of Apollo Ismenius. It would seem from Pausanias, 
that all the boys of the town wore laurel garlands on this occasion, and 
that it was customary for the sons of wealthy parents to dedicate to the 
god brazen tripods ; a considerable number of which were seen by 
Pausanias himself. Among them was one which was said to have been 
dedicated by Amphitryon at the time when Hercules was Daphnepho- 
ros This last circumstance shows that the Daphnephoria, whatever 






PHCEBOS-APOLLO. 185 



changes may have been subsequently introduced, was a very ancient 
festival. 

There was a great similarity between this festival and a solemn rite 
observed by the Delphians, who every ninth year sent a sacred boy to 
Tempe. This boy went on the sacred road and returned home as Bay- 
Bearer, amid the joyful songs and choruses of maidens. This solem- 
nity was observed in commemoration of the purification of Apollo at 
the altar in Tempe, whither he fled after killing the Python. 

The Athenians seem likewise to have celebrated a festival of the 
same nature ; but the only mention we have of it is in Proclus, who 
says that the Athenians honored the seventh day as sacred to Apollo ; 
that they carried bay-boughs, and the basket containing what apper- 
tained to the sacrifice, adorned with garlands, and sang hymns. 

As soOn, however, as this Apollo, whether his origin is to be traced 
to the banks of the Nile or the plains of India, assumes a marked sta- 
tion in the Grecian mythology, the national spirit labors to disengage 
him from his astronomical attributes. Henceforward every mysterious 
or scientific idea disappears from the Daphnephoria : they now become 
only commemorations of the passion of the god for a young female, 
who turns a deaf ear to his suit. 

The god Helios now discharges all the functions of the sun ; who, 
in his quality of son of Uranos and Ge, is placed among the cosmo- 
gonical personifications ; he has no part to play in the fables of the 
poets, and is only twice named in Homer — once as the father of Circe, 
and again, as revealing to Vulcan the infidelity of his spouse. He has 
no priests, no worship, and no solemn festival is celebrated in his praise. 
Thereby freed from every attribute of an abstract nature, x\pollo ap- 
pears in the halls of Olympos. participates in the celestial banquets, 
interferes with the quarrels of Earth, becomes the tutelary deity of 
the Trojans, the protector of Paris and iEneias, the slave of Admetos, 
and the lover of Daphne. So true is it, that all these changes in the 
character of this divinity were effected by the transmuting power of 
the Grecian spirit, that we see Apollo preserve in the mysteries which 
form so many deposits of the sacerdotal traditions, the astronomical 
attributes of which the public worship has deprived him: and at a 
later period, we find the new Platonists endeavoring to restore to him 
these same attributes, when they wished to form an allegorical system 
of religious science and philosophy out of the absurdities of Polytheism. 

But in the popular religion, instead of being the god from whom 



1S6 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY, 



emanate fecundity and increase, he is a simple shepherd, conducting 
the herds of another. Instead of dying and rising again to life, he is 
ever young. Instead of scorching the earth and its inhabitants with 
his devouring rays, he darts his fearful arrows from his quiver of gold. 
Instead of announcing the future in the mysterious language of the . 
planets, he prophecies in his own name. Nor does he any longer di- 
rect the harmony of the spheres by the notes of his mystic lyre ; he 
has now an instrument invented by Mercury and perfected by himself. 
The dances of the stars, too, cease to be conducted by him, for he now 
moves at the head of the nine Muses (the nine strings of the divine 
cithara), the divinities, who each preside over one of the liberal arts. 
The god of the sun also became the god of music by a natural allusion 
to the movements of the planets, and the mysterious harmony of the 
spheres ; and the hawk, the universal type of the divine essence, among 
the Egyptians, is with the Greeks the sacred bird of Apollo. 

The worship of Apollo was universal, and his power acknowledged 
in every country ; but more particularly in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, 
where temples and statues were erected to his honor. His most famous 
temple was at Delphi ; his statue, which stood upon mount Action, was 
particularly famous. It was seen from a great distance at sea, and 
was a mark to mariners in navigating that dangerous coast. Before 
the battle of Actium, Augustus addressed himself to it for victory. 
He had a famous colossus at Rhodes which was one of the seven won- 
ders of the world.* 

This statue, which Moratori reckons among the fables of antiquity, 
was raised by the Rhodians in honor of Apollo, who, according to So- 
linus, seemed to delight in Rhodes more than in any other part of the 
earth, because there is never any day so dark or clouded but that the 
sun appears to the inhabitants of that island. Besides, they say that 
it was the birth-place of his favorite daughter, Rhodia, and that he sent 
down upon it showers of gold, and on her birth-day caused roses to 
open and spread. 

This colossus, or brazen statue of the sun, was placed across the 
mouth of the harbor ; and its legs stretched to such a distance, that a 



* The following enumeration is generally given of the Seven Wonders of the World: 
The Colossus of Rhodes, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the statue of Jupiter Olym- 
pius, the gardens of Babylon supported on pillars, the Walls of Babylon, the Pyramids 
of Egypt, and the tomb of Mausoleus. 



PHCEBOS-APOLLO. 187 



large ship under sail might easily pass between them. It was seventy 
cubits high, or a hundred English feet ; its fingers were as long as 
ordinary statues ; and few men could with both arms grasp one of its 
thumbs. Scarcely sixty years had elapsed before this work of art was 
thrown down by an earthquake, which broke it off at the knees, where 
it remained till the conquest of Rhodes by the Saracens (A. D. 684), 
when it was beaten to pieces, and sold to a Jew merchant, who loaded 
nine hundred camels with its spoils. 

Apollo is generally represented with long hair, and the Romans were 
fond of imitating his figure ; therefore, their youth were remarkable 
for fine hair, which was not cut short until the age of seventeen or 
eighteen. He is always represented in the perfection of united manly 
strength and beauty ; holding in his hand either a bow or a lyre, and 
his head generally surrounded with rays of light. 

Upon an antique gem, which in its kind is considered a masterpiece 
of Grecian art, Apollo is represented in the act of tuning his lyre over 
the head of Pythia, who bears the sacrificial cup in her hand, as if 
inspiring the priestess with those heavenly harmonics, which revealed 
to her the time to come Another representation, also upon a gem, 
shows him leaning against an Attic pillar, with the bow in his left 
hand, and the lyre at his feet. In this image one may behold the god, 
who from the glittering bow shoots mortal arrows, but who likewise 
mingles with the choruses of the Muses, and by the healing art reno- 
vates the wounded body. 

Among the poetical fictions of the ancients, that of Apollo is one of 
the most sublime and lovely, because it dissolves the idea of a destruc- 
tive power in that of youth and beauty •; thus harmoniously combining 
two ideas entirely opposite. It seems owing to this circumstance, too, 
that plastic art in the most beautiful representation of Apollo, which, 
as a sacred bequest of antiquity, was spared by all-destroying time, had 
attained to a degree of perfection comprising all that is truly beautiful, 
the sight of which fills the soul with admiration, because of the harmo- 
nious multiplicity it expresses. The Apollo Belvidere is esteemed the 
most excellent and sublime of all the ancient productions. It was 
found about twelve leagues from Rome, in the ruins of ancient Antium, 
and purchased by Pope Julius II. when a cardinal; he removed it to 
the Belvidere of the Vatican from whence it takes its name. 

Apollo Musagetes is another celebrated statue which takes its name 
from his occupation as Musagetes or conductor of the songs of the 




APOLLO MUSAGETES. 



PHCEBOS-APOLLO. 180 



Muses. It is of Pentelic marble, about five feet eight inches high, 
dressed in a long, loose tunic fastened round the waist by a girdle ; 
the chlamys (or scarf) is fastened on the shoulders, and falls down the 
back in graceful folds. He appears listening attentively, and is accom- 
panying the songs on the greater lyre. Visconti, who was formerly 
conservator of the statues in the Napoleon Museum, in which this statue 
was placed, thinks that this dress is that of the Citharides, or players 
on the lyre ; and that it is an antique ctfpy of the Apollo Citharides 
of Timarchides, which was formerly in the portico of Octavia at Rome 
with the nine Muses of Philiscus. This statue was found at Tivoli in 
1774, in the ruins of the country-house of Cassius, called the Piancella 
di Cassio. The head bound with laurels has been broken off, but is 
the original ; the right hand and part of the lyre are restorations. 

The statues and busts of this god are always distinguished by the 
beauty of the face, and he is represented in all the antique statues with 
an air of supreme divinity. He is handsomer than Mercury, and not 
so effeminate as Bacchus, who is his rival in beauty. His features are 
extremely fine, and his limbs exactly proportioned, with as much soft- 
ness as is consistent with strength. The' ancient sculptors always 
represent him as young and beardless, and his long and beautiful hair, 
according to the poets, fell in natural, easy ringlets down his shoulders, 
and sometimes over his breast. 

The animals an$ birds consecrated to Apollo were the wolf and 
hawk, as symbols of his piercing eye ; the crow and raven, from their 
supposed faculty of presiding over the future ; the cock, which an- 
nounces the dawn, and foretells the rising of the sun ; the swan, because 
from Apollo it is supposed to have a faculty of divination, and fore- 
seeing happiness in death, dies singing ; the grasshopper, from its 
tuneful powers, and hence the custom among the Athenians of fasten- 
ing golden grasshoppers in their hair in honor of Apollo. 

As the natural enemies of the flocks over which he presided, wolves 
and hawks were offered in sacrifice to him ; also bullocks and lambs. 
The olive tree was sacred to him, as its fruits cannot ripen without his 
influence ; and the laurel, always flourishing, ever young, and condu- 
cing to divination, furnished the leaves with which he was often crowned, 

The first discovery of the oracle at Delphi is said to have been oc- 
casioned by some goats, who were feeding on Mount Parnassos, near a 
. deep and large cavern with a narrow mouth. These goats were ob- 



190 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

served by a goatherd (called by Plutarch, Ceretas) to leap and frisk 
strangely, and as they approached the cavern, to utter unusual sounds : 
his curiosity excited him to examine it, when he found himself seized 
with a like fit of madness, skipping, dancing, and foretelling things to 
come. 

At the news of this discovery, multitudes flocked thither : and the 
place was soon covered with a kind of chapel, originally made of laurel 
boughs, but finally converted into a temple of great magnitude and 
splendor. Such indeed was its reputation, and so great the multitude 
that came from all parts to consult the oracle, that the riches brought 
into the temple and city became comparable to that of the Persian 
kings. 

At first, the whole mystery requisite for obtaining the prophetic 
gift, was, to approach the cavern and inhale the vapor issuing there- 
from ; but at length, several enthusiasts having in the excess of their 
frenzy cast themselves headlong into the chasm, it was thought ex- 
pedient, by way of prevention, to place over the hole whence the vapor 
issued, a machine which they called a tripod, because it stood upon 
three feet. Upon this a woman was seated, when she imbibed the va- 
por without danger, as the tripod stood firmly upon the rock. This 
priestess was named Pythia, the Greek etymology of which word is to 
inquire. 

The Pythia, before placing herself upon the tripod, bathed in the 
waters of the fountain Castalis, at the foot of Parnassos, and also 
crowned herself with the leaves of a laurel tree that grew near the 
place. While seated upon the tripod she was closely surrounded by the 
priests of the temple. The sanctuary itself was entirely covered with 
bay-branches : in addition to this, the burning incense overclouded 
every thing as if with mysterious night, which no profane curiosity 
ventured to investigate. 

The priestess was originally a virgin ; but the institution was changed 
when Echecrates, a Thessalian, had offered violence to one of them, 
and none but women above the age of fifty were permitted to enter 
upon that sacred office. They always appeared dressed in the gar- 
ments of virgins to intimate their purity and modesty, and they were 
solemnly bound to observe the strictest laws of temperance and chastity, 
that neither fantastical dresses nor lascivious behavior might bring the 
religion or sanctity of the place into contempt. 

There was originally but one Pythia, besides subordinate priests ; 



PHCEB0S-AP0LL0. 191 



afterwards two were chosen, and sometimes more. The most celebrated 
priestess was Phemonoe, supposed to be the first that gave oracles at 
Delphi. They were said to have been agitated by strange and ghastly 
contortions on ascending the tripod, which resulted no doubt from the 
anguish of convulsed and shattered nerves. At times they attempted 
to escape from the priests, who detained them by force. At length, 
yielding to the impulse of the god, they gave forth some unconnected 
words, which were put into wretched verse by the poets who attended, 
giving occasion to the raillery, that Apollo, though prince of the Muses, 
was the worst of poets. This oracle, like all others, was obscure and 
ambiguous, and not inaccessible to the temptation of corruption. 

The oracle could be consulted only on certain days ; and excepting 
on these, the priestess was forbidden on pain of death to enter the 
sanctuary of Apollo. Alexander, before his expedition into Asia, came 
to Delphi on one of those forbidden days, and entreated Pythia to 
mount the tripod, which she steadily refused to do. The impetuous 
prince, not brooking opposition, drew her by force from her cell ; on 
their way to the temple, she exclaimed, " My son, thou art invincible !" 
As soon as these words were pronounced, Alexander declared himself 
satisfied, and would have no other oracle. It was always required that 
those who consulted the oracle should make large presents to Apollo : 
and hence arose the opulence, splendor, and magnificence of the temple 
at Delphi.* 

The Pythian games celebrated in honor of Apollo near the temple 
at Delphi, were, according to the most received opinion, first instituted 
by Apollo himself, in commemoration of his victory over the serpent 
Python. They were originally celebrated once in nine years, and after- 
wards every fifth year. According to some authors the gods were 



* It is related in one of the Grecian legends, that the tripod on which the priestess 
of Apollo sat was lost in the sea, and afterwards taken up in the nets ot some fishermen, 
who contended among themselves which should have it. The Pythian goddess being 
applied to, gave answer that it should be sent to the wisest man of Greece. It was 
then carried to Thales of Miletos, who sent it to Bias as a person wiser than himself; 
Bias referred it to another, who referred it to a fourth person. After it had been sent 
to all the wise men, it was again returned to Thales, who dedicated it to Apollo at 
Delphi. 

The seven wise men of Greece were Thales of Miletos, Solon of Athens, Chilon of 
Lacedaemon, Pittacus of Mytilene, Bias of Priene. Cleobulus of Lindi, and Periander 
of Corinth. 



192 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY 

among the combatants, and the first prizes won by Pollux in boxing, 
Castor in the horse race, Hercules in the Pancratium, Zetes in fighting 
with armor, Telamon in wrestling, and Peleus in throwing the quoit. 
These illustrious conquerors arc said to have been rewarded by Apollo 
himself, who was present with crowns and laurels. Others say, that it 
was merely a musical contest, in which he who best sang the praises of 
Apollo obtained the prize, which was presents of gold or silver, and 
afterwards changed to a garland of the palm tree. The songs which 
were sung were called the Pythian, and were divided into five parts, 
containing a representation of the victory of Apollo over the serpent 
Python. A dance was also introduced ; and in the 48th Olympiad, 
the Amphictyons, who presided over the games, increased the number 
of musical instruments by the addition of the flute ; but as that instru- 
ment was more particularly used in funeral songs and lamentations, it 
was soon rejected as unfit for merriment, and the festivals which rep- 
resented the triumph of Apollo over the conquered serpent. 

In speaking of the city of Delphi, poets commonly use the appella- 
tion of Pytho ; but Herodotus, and historians in general, prefer that 
of Delphi, and are silent as to the other. Though not so ancient as 
Dodona, it is evident that the fame of the Delphic shrine was estab- 
lished at a very early period, both from the mention made of it by 
Homer, and the accounts supplied by Pausanias and Strabo. The 
Homeric hymn to Apollo informs us, that when the Pythian god was 
establishing his oracle at- Delphi, he beheld on the sea a merchant ship 
from Crete ; this he directs to Crissa, and appoints the foreigners the 
servants of his newly established sanctuary, near which they settled. 
When this story (which we would not aflirm to be historically true) is 
stripped of the language of poetry, it can only mean that a Cretan col- 
ony founded the temple and oracle at Delphi. Strabo reports that this 
oracle was at first only consulted by the neighboring states ; but that 
after its fame became more widely spread, foreign princes and nations 
eagerly sought responses from the sacred tripod, and loaded the altar 
of the god with rich presents and costly offerings.* 

Pausanias states, that the most ancient temple of Apollo at Delphi 
was formed with branches of laurel ; and that the branches were cut 
from the tree that was at Tempe. The form of the temple resembled 
a cottage. After mentioning a second and a third, the one raised, as 

* For a full account of oracles see Appendix. 



TEMPLE OF DELPHI. 



193 



the Delphians said, by bees, from wax and wings, and sent by Apollo 
to the Hyperboreans, and the other built of brass, he adds, that to this 
succeeded a fourth and more stately edifice of stone. Here were 
deposited the numerous presents of (xyges and Midas, Alyattes and 
Croesus, as well as those of the Sybarites, Spinatae, and Siceliots ; each 
prince and nation having their separate chapel or treasury for the 
reception of those offerings, with an inscription attesting the name of 
the donor, and the occasion of the gift. 

This temple, having been accidentally destroyed by fire in the first 
year of the 58th Olympiad, or 548 B. C, the Amphictyons undertook 
the building of another for the sum of three hundred talents, of which 
the Delphians were to pay one-fourth. The remainder is said to have 
been obtained by contributions from the different cities and nations. 
Amasis, king of Egypt, furnished a thousand talents of Alumina. The 
Memaeonidse, a wealthy Athenian family, undertook the contract, and 
agreed to construct the edifice of Porine stone, but afterwards liberally 
substituted Parian marble for the front ; a circumstance which is said 
to have added much to their influence at Delphi. 

The vast riches accumulated in this temple, led Xerxes, after having 
forced the pass of Thermopylae, to detach a portion of his army into 
Phocis, with a view of securing Delphi and its treasures, which, as 
Herodotus aflirms, were better known to him than the treasures of his 
own palace ; the enterprise failed, however, owing, as it was reported 
by the Delphians, to the manifest interposition of their deity, who 
terrified the barbarians, and hurled destruction on their scattered 
bands. 

Many years subsequent to this event, the temple fell into the hands 
of the Phocians, headed by Philomelus, who scrupled not to appropri-* 
ate its riches to the payment of his troops in the war he was then 
waging against Thebes. The Phocians are said to have plundered the 
temple of the enormous amount of ten thousand talents, nearly ten 
million six hundred thousand dollars. At a still later period, Delphi 
became exposed to a formidable attack from a large body of Gauls, 
headed by their king Brennus. These barbarians, having forced the 
defiles of Mount (Eta, possessed themselves of the temple and ransacked 
its treasures. The booty which they obtained on this occasion must 
have been immense ; this they must have succeeded in removing to 
their own territory, since we are told that on the capture of Tolosa, a 
pity of Gaul, by the Roman general Caepio, a great part of the Delphic 

13 



194 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

spoils was found there. Pausanias, however, relates that the Gauls 
met with great disasters in their attempt on Delphi, and were totally 
discomfited through the miraculous intervention of the god. 

Strabo assures us that in his time the temple was greatly impover 
ished ; all the offerings of any value having been successively removed. 
The Emperor Nero, according to Pausanias, carried off five hundred 
statues of bronze at one time. Constantine the Great, however, proved 
a more fatal enemy to Delphi, than either Sylla or Nero. He removed 
the sacred tripods to adorn the Hippodrome of his new city, where, 
together with the Apollo, the statues of the Heliconian Muses, and a 
celebrated statue of Pan, they were extant when Sozomen wrote his 
history. Among these tripods was the famous one which the Greeks, 
after the battle of Plataea, found in the camp of Mardonius. The 
brazen column which supported this tripod is still to be seen at Con- 
stantinople. 

The site of Delphi has been well described as a natural theatre, 
slopiDg in a semi-circular declivity from the foot of Parnassus. At the 
highest point of this theatre stood the temple of Apollo. Its form may 
still be recognized on the coins and sculptured marbles that belong to 
the ancient history of Delphi. An interesting record of the ornaments 
with which it was decorated is preserved in the Ion of Euripides. On 
the place once occupied by its foundation, not a vestige of its structure 
remains. In its shrine was the elliptical stone which was regarded as 
the centre of the earth. Here was the oracular chasm, whence the pro- 
phetic vapor issued, which determined the fate of kingdoms and of 
empires. 

To the west of the temple was thp stadium, of which the outline is 
still visible. To the east of it was the glen through which fell a cas- 
cade fed by the snows of Parnassus, and which descended into a basin 
hewn in the rock, which was also supplied by a perennial stream of 
clear and salubrious water. This was the poetic fountain of Castalia. 
It still flows on while the temple of Apollo, and the Council Hall of 
the Amphictyons, the Treasure-house of Croesus, and the three thou- 
sand statues that crowded the buildings and streets of Delphi, even in 
the time of Pliny, have all vanished as though they had never been. 
The spring is now dedicated to St. John, in whose honor a small chapel 
has been erected over its source. It falls down the declivity on which 
Delphi stood, into the river Pleistus, which flows along the valley at 



ARTEMIS OR DIANA. 195 



the foot of the city. It passes, in a westerly direction, through grovea 
of olives, by the side of the Delphian Hippodrome, and at the base of 
the lofty crags where stood the Crissa of Homer, which preserves, in 
its modern name of Crissa. and in the huge polygonal walls of its Acro- 
polis, the memorials of its ancient greatness. It then receives a tribu- 
tary stream coming from the north, and flowing beneath the city of 
Amphissa. Their united waters glide through a wide and beautiful 
plain, known and reverenced with a feeling of religious awe in ancient 
times as the hallowed plain of Cirrha, till they fall into the gulf of 
Corinth in the Crissean Bay, which is at the distance of five miles from 
the site of Delphi, of which city it was formerly the harbor. 

Of the beauty of this scene, and of the peculiar features which dis- 
tinguish it, no better or more accurate description can be given than 
that which is contained in the following lines of Milton, to whose 
imagination, when he composed them, a landscape presented itself 
similar to that which the traveller beholds from the ruins of the citadel 
of Crissa. 

" It was a mountain at whose verdant feet 
A spacious plain, outstretch'd in circuit wide, 
Lay pleasant ; from his side two rivers flow'd, 
The one winding, the other straight, and left between, 
Fair champaign with less rivers intervein'd, 
Then meeting, join'd their tribute to the sea. 
Fertile of corn the glebe, of oil and wine ; 
With herds the pasture thronged, with flocks the hills ; 
Huge cities and high tower'd, that well might seem 
The seats of mightiest monarchs." 

ARTEMIS OR DIANA. 

Artemis, the daughter of Zeus and Leto, or Latona, and twin sister 
of Apollo, was the goddess of chastity, of the chase and the woods. 
As a celestial deity, she was Luna or the moon ; as a terrestrial god- 
dess, Artemis or Dictyna ; and in the infernal regions, Hecate, or Per- 
sephone. She was supposed to enlighten heaven by her rays, to re- 
strain wild animals by her bow and dart on earth, and to keep in awe 
the multitude of ghosts in the regions below. 

. Her father, Zeus, at her earnest entreaties, granted her the sempi- 
ternal state of a virgin ; she then took up her bow and arrows, kindled 
her flambeau at Zeus' lightning, and accompanied by her nymphs went 
forth through the dark forests and woody mountains. Bending her 



196 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

silver bow, she sends forth the fatal shafts on every side ; the tops of 
the mountains tremble, and the forests resound with the panting of the 
wounded deer. 

Yet, even in the tumult of the chase, the goddess does not forget 
her divine brother, whom, of all immortals, she loves most. After 
having enjoyed herself in the sylvan sport in which she delighted — 
speeding over the hills, followed by a train of nymphs, in pursuit of the 
flying game, she unbends her bow, hastens to Delphi, the residence of 
the shining Apollo, suspends there her weapon, and leads the choruses 
of the Muses and Graces, who chant forth the praises of the heavenly 
Leto because she was the mother of such children. 

Diana shines brightest as the sister of Phoebos- Apollo, who sheds 
upon her his own* glorious splendor. United with him, she with terri- 
ble arrows kills the children of Niobe ; in union with him, she directs 
her soothing weapons against the families of men, who, like withering 
leaves, are to make room for generations to come. She is said to have 
prepared herself for this, by trying her arrows first on trees, then on 
animals, and lastly on a lawless city, annoying its inhabitants with 
pernicious shafts that carried sickness and plagues along with them. 

The archetype of Diana is the shining moon ; who, cold and chaste ; 
scatters her modest, silver light over mountain-tops and forest glades. 
The chasteness of Diana is a fearful trait in her character, as witnessed 
in the fate of Actseon, the hunter, who surprised her when bathing. 
He fell a victim to her offended, virgin modesty, for she immediately 
changed him into a stag, and suffered his own dogs to devour him. 

Another example of her severity is afforded in that unfortunate 
priestess of hers who profaned her sanctuary by receiving into it the 
youth whom she loved. The offended goddess punished the whole 
country with plagues and pestilence, until the guilty couple were sacri- 
ficed upon her altar. Virgins making the vow of chastity devoted 
themselves to Diana, who, with dreadful punishments avenged the vio- 
lation of this vow. Whenever therefore, one of the virgins who by 
sacred promises had become a devoted priestess of Diana, changing 
her resolution, wished to marry, she trembled at the thought of the 
vengeance of her goddess, and endeavored to reconcile her by supplica- 
tions and sacrifices 

During the Trojan war, Diana ventured to challenge the stronger 
Juno ; but she had reason to repent of her forward boldness when 
made to feel the powerful arm of Jupiter's spouse. " The deer of the 



ARTEMIS OR DIANA. 197 



mountain thou canst kill, but not fight against those who are stronger 
than thou." Thus saying, Juno, with her left hand laid hold of both 
Diana's, took off with her right the quiver from the shoulder of the 
poor prisoner, and struck her with it on either cheek, so that the arrows 
were scattered upon the ground. Like a timid dove escaped from the 
claws of a hawk, so fled Diana, weeping, and leaving her quiver, which, 
together with the scattered shafts, were taken up and restored to her 
by Latona. (IL xi. 480.) 

Although these divine persons act in the manner of human beings, 
the fiction itself, if viewed as a whole, is not destitute of beauty. The 
same dreadful quiver from which deadly arrows spread over the race 
of mortals, is an easy toy in the hands of the august Juno, who uses it 
as an instrument wherewith to chastise the forward insolence of the 
less powerful Diana ; and the latter, whose blushing cheeks feel the 
blows of that quiver inflicted by a stronger hand, accoutred with which 
she is accustomed to walk forth in majestic pride, affords a striking 
picture of female power deeply humbled. 

The wiser Apollo, when challenged by Neptune, on the same occa- 
sion, returns his antagonist this answer : " Why should I fight with 
thee for the sake of miserable mortals, who, like the leaves of trees, 
last but a short time, and then wither away? Let us refrain from fight 
ing, and let them carry on the war among themselves." (II. xi. 461.) 

Diana was supposed to be the same as the Isis of the Egyptians, 
whose worship was introduced into Greece, with that of Osiris, under 
the name of Apollo. In the previous article we have spoken of the 
change produced by Grecian ideas on the attributes and worship of 
that Deity, and a change no less remarkable took place in that of Diana. 

At Delos she is evidently a cosmogonical power : for there she is 
the mother of Eros, who, in the Theogonies, is always taken for the 
creative force. With the Scythians, she is a ferocious goddess, of a 
frightful form, and eager after the blood of men. As such she first 
appeared to the Spartans ; since, at the very sight of her, they were 
seized with fright bordering on delirium. In Colchis, she has so little 
of the Grecian character as to defend the golden fleece against the 
attempts of the Argonauts. Her hounds guard the seven doors of the 
enclosure which contains the precious treasure, and her voice issues 
commands to monsters that recall the fictions of India. At Ephesus, 
the slightest inspection of her figure betrays the sacerdotal imprint 



198 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

But how different a being is she in the Grecian mythology! And yet, 
on a closer inspection, we shall find that even here none of her attri- 
butes are completely lost. Diana is the goddess of the chase ; and 
Isis, accompanied by her faithful hounds and the dog-headed Anubis, 
searched for the body of her husband ; and the companions of Isis be- 
come the pack of Diana. Diana guides in the heavens the silvery globe 
that dissipates the obscurity of the night, and her bow is adorned with 
the splendors of the crescent ; Isis is also the moon, and the crescent 
appears among the ornaments of the goddess at Ephesus. Diana is the 
cause of the infirmities of women, strikes them with delirium, and 
sometimes with death ; Isis was once the Tithrambo of Egypt, or the 
moon viewed with reference to it's unhealthy influence. 

In the same manner, Diana becomes Hecate, slain by Hercules and 
resuscitated by Phorcys. And yet, so great is the repugnance of the 
Greeks to admit any thing into their religious system which may have 
a reference to science, that as they separate Apollo and Helios, so they 
make two distinct deities of Diana and Selene ; and thus render the 
goddess of the chase more free, more independent, and possessed of 
more individuality. , 

A chaste virgin, she defies the power of love, and punishes with 
severity the errors of her attendant nymphs. This notion of vir- 
ginity, prevalent even in the worship of the savage nations, is an idea 
natural to man, and which sacerdotal influence seeks to record and 
prolong. With the Greeks, however, over whom none of this influence 
was exercised, such an attribute becomes an object of secondary im- 
portance, and is considered the effect of caprice, or of the modesty of 
a young female ; and the poets at one time throw doubts on its reality, 
and at another upon its duration. Yet, virgin as she is, Diana pre- 
sides over the birth of children, a combination in which no one can 
mistake the union of the power which destroys with that which creates. 
We see, then, how incoherent are the traces of sacerdotal ideas, 
which survive this strange metamorphosis. The Hertha of Scythia, 
the Bendis of Thrace, the Isis of Egypt, the Diana of Ephesus, that 
motionless, enigmatical, and fettered mummy, become, beneath Gre- 
cian skies, a young and active huntress, who, in her course as rapid as 
the winds, pursues on the mountain tops the timid inhabitants of the 
woods. 

Diana is always represented as taller by the head than her attend- 




ARTEMIS OR DIANA. 






200 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

ants ; her face somewhat manly, her legs bare, well shaped and strong, 
her feet sometimes bare, and sometimes covered with the cothurnus* 
or buskin of the ancient hunters. By poets and artists, she is repre- 
sented as armed with bow and arrows, and has threescore nymphs in 
her train. She is also represented with a quiver and attended by 
dogs, and sometimes drawn in a chariot by two white stags or her 
nymphs. Again, she appears with, wings, holding a lion with one hand 
and a panther in the other ; or in a chariot drawn by two horses, one 
white and one black. 

The representations of this goddess are generally known by the 
crescent on her head, by the dogs which attend her, and by her 
hunting habit. Isis, Diana, and the Bull Apis, are decorated with the 
crescent, which announced the commencement of a new moon. The 
dogs and buskins more particularly mark the goddess of the chase, as 
the crescent was often used by the ancients as an ornament to the 
female head — an example of which may be seen on a bust of Marciana, 
in the villa Pamfili. On many medals of queens, the bust is sup- 
ported by a crescent, allusive of their relative situations to their hus- 
bands, who, as kings, were as the sun, while they were as the moon. 
It is also an emblem of the eternity of an empire, and found on the 
imadals of many cities, particularly Byzantium, from whence it is sup- 
posed to have been borrowed by the Ottomans. 

Upon^one of those antique gems which have reached our own times, 
Diana is represented with her garments tucked up, leaning in an easy 
posture against a pillar, her quiver and her bow suspended from her 
shoulder ; and, as the being who clears up the shades of night, she 
holds a flambeau in her hand which she is about to extinguish ; behind 
her a mountain is seen, illustrative of her being the goddess who ran- 
ges the woody tops, and follows the track of the deer. 

The Diana Triformis, also called Hecate, and Trivia by Ovid, Hor- 
ace, and Virgil, when her statues stood where three roads met, is rep- 



* Cothurnus was a kind of boot or buskin worn by the hunters, and also by actors of 
tragedy, when they represented the characters of gods or heroes. They differed from 
the sandal, which was a mere sole tied about the toes and ancles with thongs and straps 
of leather, while the cothurnus covered the foot and leg as high as the calf, and was 
ornamented with gold, gems, and ivory. The Melpomene of the Vatican is accoutred 
with cothurni, and both Virgil and Cicero mention them as forming a part of the cos- 
tume of hunters and tragedians. 



ARTEMIS OR DIANA. 



201 



resented by these poets as hav- 
ing three heads, and sometimes 
with three bodies. She was 
frequently invoked in enchant- 
ments, as being the infernal Di- 
ana, and then appears more 
like a Fury than a celestial 
goddess. 

As the celestial Diana, she 
is described by Statius as of 
majestic stature ; and, in the 
council of the gods, appears 
with the bow and quiver on her 
shoulders. Cicero describes a 
statue answering to this de- 
scription, that once belonged to 
Scipio Africanus. 

In antique sculpture, Diana 
is frequently represented as de- 
scending with her head veiled 
to a shepherd who is sleeping. This fable might have originated from 
an eclipse of the moon ; if so, her veil would be the most significant 
and characteristic part of her costume. The ancients represented death 
under the symbol of the sleeping Endymion, and upon marble coffins, 
enclosing the ashes of youths who had fallen early into the tomb, Di- 
ana is to be seen descending from on high to the lips of the happy 
slumberer 




The inhabitants of Taurica were particularly attached to the worship 
of this goddess, and cruelly offered on her altars all strangers who 
were shipwrecked on their coasts. In Asia her temple was served by 
a priest who had always murdered his predecessor, and the Lacedaemo- 
nians yearly offered her victims till the age of Lycurgos, who changed 
this barbarous custom to that of flagellation. 

Her most famous temple was that at Ephesus. There the statue of 
the goddess was regarded with peculiar veneration ; and was believed 
by the vulgar to have fallen from the skies. It was never changed, 
though the temple had been more than once restored. This rude ob- 
ject of primeval worship was a block of wood, said by some to be of 



202 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

beech or elm — by others, cedar, ebony, or vine, and attesting its very 
great antiquit}' by the fashion in which it was formed. It was carved 
in the similitude of Diana, not as the elegant huntress, but as an Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphic, which we call the goddess of nature, with many 
breasts : and the lower part formed into a Hermean statue, grotesquely 
ornamented, and discovering the two feet beneath. It was gorgeously 
apparelled, and the vest richly embroidered with emblems and symbol- 
ical devices : to prevent its tottering, a bar of metal, probably of gold, 
was placed under each hand. Except while service was performed in 
the temple, this image was concealed by a veil or curtain drawn up from 
the floor to the ceiling, and was preserved till the later ages in a shrine, 
on the embellishment of which mines of wealth were consumed. The 
priests of the temple were eligible only from the superior ranks, and 
enjoyed a great revenue, with privileges, the eventual abuse of which 
induced Augustus to restrain them. 

It may easily be imagined that many stories of the power and inter 
position of Diana were currently believed at Ephesus. A people who 
were convinced that the self-manifestations of their deity were real, 
could not easily be turned to a religion which did not pretend to a sim- 
ilar or equal intercourse with its divinity ; and this is perhaps the true 
reason why, in the early ages of antiquity, a belief of the supernatural 
interposition of the Panagia, or Virgin Mary, and saints appearing in 
daily or nightly visions, was encouraged and inculcated. It helped by 
its currency to procure and confirm the credulous votary ; to prevent 
or refute the cavils of the heathen ; to exalt the new religion, and to 
deprive the established of its ideal superiority. The address of the 
town clerk to the Ephesians, " Ye men of Ephesus. what man is there 
that knoweth not how the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the 
great goddess Diana, and of the image that fell down from Jupiter?" 
is curiously illustrated by an inscription found by Chandler, near the 
aqueduct, commencing as follows : — " Inasmuch as it is notorious, that 
not only among the Ephesians, but also every where among the Greek 
nations, temples are consecrated to her, and sacred portions, etc." 

The reputation and riches of their goddess made the Ephesians desi- 
rous of providing for her a magnificent temple. The fortunate discov- 
ery of marble in Mount Prion gave them new vigor, and the cities of 
Asia (so general was the esteem of the goddess) contributed largely ; 
Croesus was at the expense of maDy of the columns. The spot chosen 
for it was a marsh, as being most likely to preserve the structure free 



TEMPLE OF EPHESUS. 203 



from gaps and uninjured by earthquakes. The foundation was made 
with charcoal rammed, and with fleeces ; and the edifice was exalted on 
a base of ten steps. 

The architects were Ctesiphon of Crete, and his son Metegenes, who 
lived 541 B. C. Their plan was continued by Demetrius, a priest of 
Diana ; but the whole work was completed by Daphnis of Miletos, a 
citizen of Ephesus, the building having occupied two hundred and 
twenty years. It was the first specimen of the Ionic style in which 
the fluted column and capital with volutes were introduced. The whole 
length of the temple was four hundred and twenty-five feet, and the 
breadth two hundred and twenty, with one hundred and twenty-seven 
columns of the Ionic order, and of Parian marble, each of a single shaft, 
and sixty feet high. Of these columns, thirty-six were carved, and 
one of them, perhaps as a model, by Scopas. The temple had a double 
row of columns, fifteen on either side, and Yitruvius has not deter- 
mined whether it had a roof; probably over the cell only. The folding- 
doors or gates had been kept four years in glue, and were of cypress 
wood, and highly polished, which had been treasured up for four gene- 
rations. These were found by Mautianas as fresh and beautiful four 
hundred years afterwards, as when new. The ceiling was of cedar, 
and the steps for ascending the roof (of the cell ?) of a single stem of 
a vine, which witnessed the durable nature of that wood. 

The dimensions of this temple excite ideas of magnificence and un- 
common grandeur, from mere massiveness ; but the notices we collect 
of its internal ornaments increase our admiration. It was the reposi- 
tory in which the great artists of antiquity dedicated their most perfect 
works to posterity. Praxiteles and his son Cephisodorus adorned the 
shrine ; Scopas contributed a statue of Hecate ; Tymarete, the daugh- 
ter of Mycon (the first female artist upon record), furnished a picture 
of the goddess, the most ancient in Ephesus ; and Parrhasius and 
Apelles employed their skill in embellishing the walls. The excellence 
of tnese performances may be supposed to have been proportionate to 
their prices ; a picture, by the latter artist, of Alexander grasping a 
thunderbolt, was added to the collection at the expense of twenty 
talents of gold 

This description, however, applies to the temple as it was rebuilt 
after it was partially burned (perhaps the roof of timber only) by He- 
rostratos, who chose that method to ensure to himself an immortal name, 
on the very night that Alexander the Great was born. Twenty years 



204 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY, 

after, that magnificent prince, during his expedition against Persia, 
offered to appropriate his spoils to the restoration of it, if the Ephesians 
would consent to allow him the sole honor, and would place his name 
on the temple. They declined the proposal, with the flattering remark, 
that it was not right for one deity to erect a temple to another. Na- 
tional vanity, however, was the real ground of their refusal. 

The extreme sanctity of the temple inspired universal awe and rev- 
erence ; and it was for many ages a repository of foreign and domestic 
treasure. There, property, whether public or private, was secure amid 
all revolutions. The conduct of Xerxes was an example to subsequent 
conquerors, and the impiety of sacrilege was not extended to the Ephe- 
sian goddess. But Nero deviated from this rule, and removed many 
costly offerings and images, and an immense quantity of silver and 
gold. It was again plundered by the Goths from beyond the Danube, 
in the time of Grallienus, a party under Raspa crossing the Hellespont, 
and ravaging the country until they were compelled to retreat, when 
they carried off a prodigious booty. The destruction of so illustrious 
an edifice deserved to have been carefully recorded by contemporary 
historians, but we may conjecture that it followed the triumph of 
Christianity. The Ephesian reformers, when authorized by imperial 
edicts, rejoiced in the opportunity of insulting Diana, and deemed it 
piety to abolish the very ruin of her habitation. 

When under the auspices of Constantine and Theodosius churches 
were erected, the pagan temples were despoiled of their ornaments, or 
accommodated to other worship. The immense dome of Santa Sophia 
now rises from the columns of green jasper which were originally placed 
in the temple of Diana ; they were taken down and removed to Con- 
stantinople by order of Justinian ; two pillars in the great church at 
Pisa were also transported from hence. 

Another celebrated temple of Artemis was that of Scythia Taurica 
whence Orestes and Pylades, at the command of Apollo, brought away 
the statue of the goddess, and Iphigenia, the sister of Orestes. wb.G 
was detained as a priestess by Thoas ? the king and high priest. 



ARES OR MARS. 



205 



ARES OR MARS. 

Ares, the son of Zeus and Hera, and the god of war, presided ovei 
gladiators, and whatever exercises and amusements were manly and 
warlike. 

From his name the hill at Athens, the assembling place of that court 
of judicature so renowned for its justice, was called Areiopagos ; and 
also the hill of Ares, because he was said to have been tried there for 
the murder of Hallirrothios, son of Poseidon. 

Ares is generally represented in the figure of a man, armed with a 
helmet, pike, and shield, or in a chariot drawn by furious horses, called 
by the poets Flight and Terror. Sometimes Discord precedes him in 
tattered garments, while Clamor and Anger follow behind. 

His companion, Bellona, daughter of Phorcys and Keto, was called 
Enyo by the Greeks. She was anciently called Duelliona, and accord- 
ing to some was the sister of Ares, or to others, his daughter, or wife, 
and was often confounded with Athena, the goddess of war. She pre- 
pared the chariot of Ares for battle, drove the horses, and also appeared 
in battles with dishevelled hair, a torch in her left hand, and the right 
armed with a. whip which she used to animate the combatants. 

Thus we see that to the dreadful and terrible, even to destructive 
war, the imagination of the ancients ascribed personality. Thus they 
tempered the idea of that wild, impetuous power that rages like a tem- 
pest through the host engaged in the bloody strife, that breaks helmets, 
dashes weapons to pieces, and crushes chariots ; that throws alike to 
the ground the valiant and the faint-hearted in the whirling storm of 
the battle, triumphing over its wasting destruction. The human form 
in which this terrible appearance was embodied by imagination, and 
associated in the assembly of the gods, presented a model to the war- 
rior, the majesty of which he partly appropriated to himself by bold 
and valorous deeds. 

That the human form of Ares should be dissolved from time to time 
in the idea of the fighting army itself, lies in the nature of poetical 
representations. Thus, when in a combat before Troy, he was wounded 
by the valiant Diomedes. aided by Athena, he roared, as the poet tells 
us, like ten thousand men, so that on hearing the voice of the brazen 
god of war, terror seized both Greeks and Trojans. Enveloped in 
clouds, he immediately ascended to Olympos, appearing to Diomedes 
as the nightly gloom that precedes a tempest. On arriving at the 



£06 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

abode of the immortal gods, he complained to Zeus of the audacity of 
men. But Zeus reproved him with angry words : " Trouble me not 
with thy complaints, inconstant! Thou art to me the most odious of 
all the gods that dwell in Olympos ; for thou knowest no other pleasure 
than strife, war, and contest. In thee dwells the whole character of 
thy mother, and hadst thou been the son of another god, and not my 
own, thou wouldst long ago have lain deeper than the sons of Uranos." 
(II. v. 850.) 

The inconstancy of Mars, with which, he is reproached, not only by 
his father, but also by Minerva, who calls him a deserter, that now 
sides with one enemy now with another, implies the idea of war itself, 
represented by poetry as something that exists, as it were, for its own 
sake, not caring if the bustle and tumult of the battle are continued, 
who are the conquered, and who the conquerors. 

Although the violent and inconstant Mars was often reproved and 
upbraided by Jupiter and Minerva, the more gentle and meek deities, 
and for this very reason the more powerful, he still held his seat among- 
the celestials; and on earth, temples and altars were erected to his 
honor. Indeed, by his youthful impetuosity, he even contrived to win 
the love of the tender Venus, who, unmindful of her duty towards her 
husband, maintained a secret intercourse with the god of war. From 
this disguised connection between the tender and the violent, Harmonia 
was produced ; who afterwards became the wife of Cadmos, the founder 
of Thebes. 

In the same manner as Venus binds the impetuous god of war by 
her tenderness, Minerva restrains his violence by her wisdom For 
when on a certain occasion, the threatening injunction of Jupiter pro- 
hibited the gods from taking any part in the contests between the 
Greeks and Trojans, and Mars had been apprised that in one of their 
fights, Ascalaphus was slain, immediately commanded his servants, 
Fear and Terror, to put his horses to his chariot ; then taking up his 
glittering arms he thus addressed the inhabitants of Olympos : ' : Be 
not angry with me, celestials, because I go to avenge the death of my 
son Ascalaphus ; my paternal heart will not suffer me to remain tran- 
quil, even though Jupiter should hurl his lightnings upon me." Mi- 
nerva sprang from her seat, and pulling his brazen spear out of his hand, 
tore the helmet from his head, and the shield from his shoulder. " Mad- 
man," she cried, "thoi wilt bring ruin upon us all, if Jove's wrath be 
excited to the utmost ! Refrain from thy anger, for many lie slain who 



ARES OR MARS. 207 



were stronger than thy son, and many stronger than he will yet fall. 
Who can save mortals from death ?" Thus spoke the goddess of wisdom 
and brought the furious Mars back to his seat. (II. xv. 115.) 

In all these human representations of the gods, who does not per- 
ceive the display of great images and sublime ideas, which give beauty 
and dignity to the fictions themselves ? Wild destruction, tender sub- 
limity, high charms of beauty, and guiding wisdom, are variously min- 
gled and concealed, under the guise of human forms. 

Mars, according to his profession as a warrior, is represented in 
complete armor, bearing shield and spear. An antique gem preserved 
in one of the German Museums, shows him as descending from the 
cloud-capt Olympos, supporting himself by his right hand upon the 
cliffs of mountains, and carrying on his left arm a buckler and spear. 

Among the ancients, the worship of Mars was not very universal : 
his temples in Greece were not numerous, but in Rome he received 
the most unbounded honors. The warlike Romans were proud of pay- 
ing homage to a deity, whom they esteemed the patron of their city, 
and the father of the first of their monarchs. His most celebrated 
temple at Rome was built by Augustus, after the battle of Philippi. 
and dedicated to Mars Ultor, or the Avenger. Among the Romans it 
was usual for the consul, before entering on an expedition, to visit the 
temple of Mars, where he offered his prayers, and in a solemn manner, 
shook the spear which was in the hand of the statue of the god, at the 
same time exclaiming, "Mars, Vigila! God of War, watch over the 
welfare and safety of the city." 

His priests among the Romans were called Salii ; they were first 
instituted by Numa, and their chief office was, to guard the sacred 
ancile, which was supposed to have fallen from heaven. The oracle 
was consulted respecting it, and declared that the empire of the world 
was destined f6r the city that should preserve that shield. Numa 
Pompilius, second king of Rome, caused several to be made so exactly 
like it, that it was almost impossible to distinguish the original. The 
form was oval. 

His altars were frequently stained with the blood of the horse and 
the wolf — the former for his warlike spirit, and the latter for his 
ferocity; the dog was consecrated to him for his vigilance in the pur- 
suit of his prey ; the raven because he follows the march of armies : 
and the magpie and vulture for their greediness and voracity. The 
. Scythians generally offered him asses, and the people of Caria, dogs. 



208 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

The weed called dog grass was sacred to him, because it is supposed 
to grow in places which are fit for fields of battle, or where the ground 
has been stained by the effusion of human blood. 

The Romans paid great adoration to Bellona ; but she was held in 
still greater veneration by the Cappadocians, where she had above three 
thousand priests. 

Her temple at Rome, in which the senators gave audience to foreign 
ambassadors, and to generals returned from war, was without the city, 
in the Porta Carmentalis. At the gate was a small column, called the 
column of war, against which a spear was thrown whenever war was 
declared against an enemy. 

The priests of the goddess were called Bellonarii ; they consecrated 
themselves by making large incisions, particularly in the thigh, and 
receiving the blood in their hands to offer as a sacrifice to the goddess. 
Lactantius described them as cutting themselves most furiously in her 
worship : and Tertullian adds, that having collected the blood that 
flows from these gashes, they pledged the neophytes who were initiated 
into their mysteries, and then, in their wild enthusiasm, predicted blood- 
shed and wars, the defeat of enemies, and the besieging of towns. 

ATHENA OR MINERVA. 

When the blue-eyed Athena sprang forth from the immortal head 
of Zeus, Olympos shook and trembled ; and the charioteer of the sun 
stopped his snorting steeds, until the new-born goddess took off her 
radiant armor. 

Athena was immediately admitted to the assembly of the gods, and 
had' great power awarded to her. She could prolong the life of men. 
bestow the gift of prophecy, and indeed was the only divinity whose 
authority and consequence were equal to those of her father. 

Not being the offspring of a mother, her bosom was as cold as the 
steel with which it was covered. Her nature approached to manly 
greatness : tenderness and female affection dwelt not in her heart. By 
this disposition, equally adapted to quiet, unprejudiced musing on art 
and science, and to undaunted participation in warlike occupations, 
her two-fold character, as Goddess of Wisdom and as Heroine, is at 
once explained and justified : for in a female, the want of tender feel- 
ings is always connected with a desire of destruction, which constantly 



\THENA OR MINERVA. 20£ 



gains strength. It is the tender-hearted, affectionate Aphrodite, who, 
merely out of love to Adonis, and not on her own account, pursues 
with him the roes and fawns of the forest ; but the colder Arteniis 
delights in chase and destruction itself, only forgetting it for a moment, 
when, with secret fondness, she steals a look at the slumbering Rn- 
dymion. 

Athena, the cold and chaste virgin, being destitute of every feeling 
of tenderness and languishing passion, finds her pleasure, like the 
stern god of battle, in warlike tumult, and delights in the sight of 
destroyed cities. There, is, however, this difference : she at the same 
time patronising the peaceful arts, does not share with him the impet- 
uosity and violence of character by which he is distinguished. Re- 
pulsive coldness is the chief feature that characterizes her, and renders 
her equally capable of being the directress of just wars, and of practis- 
ing the laborious task of weaving ; of inventing useful arts, and guid- 
ing the wrathful minds of heroes. When Achilles was about to draw 
his sword against Agamemnon, his king and chief, the blue-eyed god- 
dess suddenly stood behind him with terrible look, invisible to every 
one but himself, seized his yellow hair, and assuaged the wrath of the 
young hero with prudent advice. He withdrew his mighty fist from 
the silver handle, and the sword dropped back into its scabbard. 
Thus Pallas-Athene, even in the midst of war, appears as a mediator 
and peace-maker ; nor is she by any means to be confounded with 
Bellona, who, with terrific countenance, and dishevelled hair, brand- 
ishes a bloody whip in her right hand, while the other shakes the 
heavy lance, and drives the chariot of the G-od of War. Bellona is a 
subordinate being, who, even by her appearance and deportment, 
betrays her inferior standing. In her wild aspect, no quiet look dis 
closes the divine spark of inward wisdom or inventive genius. Her 
glaring eye darts rage and fury ; her figure is not graced with that 
majestic air, in which the just ruler of battles and the august guide 
of heroes is to be recognized ; her headlong impetuosity, her cruel 
desire of murder and devastation, discovers the worthy companion of 
Discord, as well as the ferocious driver of Ares' snorting coursers. 

In the divine person of Athena, warlike disposition was tempered 
partly by her female sex ; yet more so by those faculties which ren- 
dered her the benefactress of mankind in bestowing upon them the 
peaceful arts. For the same goddess who delighted in the din of bat- 
tle and the shouts of fighting heroes, taught mankind the art of weav- 

14 



210 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

ing. of building ships, and of pressing oil from olives. When she was 
engaged in the contest with Poseidon as to the right of giving a name 
to the capital of Cecropia, than which none more advanced in the arts 
and sciences has ever adorned the earth, it was agreed in the council 
of the gods, that the honor of naming it should belong to whichever 
of the claimants should bestow the most useful present upon its inhabit- 
ants. Poseidon, upon this, struck the ground with his trident, and 
immediately a horse issued from the earth. Minerva produced the 
olive, and obtained the victory by the unanimous voice of the gods, 
who observed that the olive, as the emblem of peace, is far preferable 
to the horse, the symbol of war and bloodshed. The victorious deity 
called the capital Athense, and became the tutelar goddess of the 
place. 

The opposition of apparently quite different and incongruous fea- 
tures in the character of Minerva, is by no means prejudicial to the 
beauty of her fictitious person. On the contrary, fiction becomes 
thereby, as it were, a sublimer language, which summons together a 
number of dispersed ideas into tuneful harmony ; as is the case in the 
representation of Apollo. It is true, that such diversified ideas are 
seldom united in the microcosm of the thinking mind ; yet a single 
glance into the immense world of nature, must convince us that their 
prototypes are connected in sisterly union, all apparent differences 
and contradictions of creation and destruction being dissolved, and 
life and death combined in the most perfect and beautiful harmony. 

Nor can it be justly asserted, that the unity and harmony of the 
whole in Minerva's character is distorted by the seeming contradiction 
of its single features. They all ffefer to the cold, reflecting wisdom, 
which, guarded by the want of feeling, and a sort of forbidding cal- 
lousness, never hears the voice of passion. The petrifying head of 
Medusa threatens from the shield that covers Minerva's breast ; and 
over her head hovers the gloomy, melancholy bird of night. She is 
the faithful friend of the enduring, persevering, cold, and cunning 
Ulysses, as well as the admonisher, who recalls the enraged heroes to 
presence of mind. 

The deep sense which lies concealed in all the fictions of the 
ancients, betrays itself also in the power of Minerva, being represented 
as superior to that of Mars. The warlike spirit that keeps possession 
of itself, that looks with quiet eye over the field of battle, and at the 
same time sufficiently comprehensive to attend to the arts and sciences 



ATHENA OR MINERVA. 211 

of peace, gets advantage of the impetuous one who is always ready to 
fight. When, during the war with Troy, the gods themselves had 
engaged in the combats, either to aid the Greeks or assist the Trojans, 
and had challenged each other, the turbulent god of war, rushing on 
the more tender Pallas, furiously thrust his spear against her shield ; 
but, against that, even Jupiter's lightnings are of no avail. The god- 
dess, however, falling back a little, takes up in her strong hand ac 
immense field stone, and hurls it upon the forehead of Mars, so that 
he is precipitated to the Earth, covering with his body seven acres of 
ground. 

Notwithstanding the strong, manly features, with which the picture 
of Minerva is drawn by poetry, she still continues a woman, who shares 
the foibles common to her sex. She is said to have invented the flute ; 
but seeing in a fountain the distortion of her face while playing on this 
instrument, she threw it away, to the great misfortune of Marsyas, who 
found it, and challenged Apollo to a trial of skill in music. Like 
Juno she was jealous, too, and like her. could not rest until Troy stood 
in flames and Priam's race was destroyed, because Paris had denied 
her as well as Juno the prize of beauty, awarding it to the soft charms 
of Venus. The actions of Minerva are numerous, as well as the kind- 
nesses by which she endeared herself to man. She and Neptune dis 
puted as to which would give a name to the city of Cecropia. Fabu- 
lous as the narratives of that period confessedly are, and prone as the 
inhabitants of Attica were to enhance their national glory, by adorning 
its annals with fictitious embellishments, yet it is not difficult to trace 
some footsteps of truth in those legendary records which they have 
handed down to us, of the most distant ages of their own history. 

The earliest monarch of this country whose name is preserved, was 
Cecrops. Backward, beyond him, historical traditiou did not go. He 
was therefore an Autochthon or Indigenous — the offspring of the 
earth. In his days, it is said, the gods began to choose favorite spots 
among the dwellings of men for their own residence ; or, as the ex- 
pression seems to mean, particular deities were worshipped with espe- 
cial homage in particular cities. It was at this time, then, that Mi- 
nerva and Neptune strove for the possession of Attica. The question 
was to be determined by the natural principle of priority of occupa- 
tion. Cecrops, the king of the country at that period, was called upon 
to arbitrate between them in the controversy. It was asserted by 
Neptune, that he had appropriated the territory to himself, by planting 



212 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

his trident on the rock of the Acropolis at Athens, before the land 
had been claimed by Minerva. He pointed to it, there standing erect, 
and to the salt spring which had then issued, and was flowing from the 
fissure of the cliff which had opened for the reception of the trident. 

On the other hand, Minerva alleged that she had taken possession 
of the country at a still earlier period than had been done by the rival 
deity. She appealed, in support of her claim, to the Olive, which had 
sprung at her command from the soil, and which was growing near the 
fountain produced by the hand of Neptune from the same place. 

Cecrops was required to attest the truth of her assertion. He had 
been witness to the act; and he therefore decided in favor of Minerva, 
who then became the tutelary deity of Athens. 

It is not difficult to perceive that, in this tradition, a record is pre- 
served of the rivalry (which may be considered the natural production 
of the soil, the form and the situation of Attica itself) between the two 
classes of its population — the one devoted to maritime pursuits, and 
aiming at commercial eminence — the other contented with its own do- 
mestic resources, and preferring the tranquil occupations of agricultural 
and pastoral life, which were typified by the emblematical symbol of 
peace. The victory of Minerva which it commemorates, is a true and 
significant expression of the condition of this country, and of the 
habits of its people, from the days of Cecrops to those of Themistocles. 

Athena was invoked by all artists, particularly such as worked in 
wool, embroidery, painting, and sculpture, and it was considered the 
duty of every member of society to invoke the assistance of a deity who 
presided over industry, taste, and wisdom. Her worship was univer- 
sal, and she had magnificent temples in Egypt, Phoenicia, and all parts 
of Greece, Italy, G-aul, and Sicily. 

The Panathensea, the greatest of the Athenian festivals, was celebra- 
ted in honor of Athena as the guardian deity of the city of Athens. It 
is said to have been instituted by Erichthonios, and to have been called 
originally Athenaea ; but in the time of Theseus, it obtained the name 
of Panathenaea, in consequence of his uniting into one state the dif- 
ferent independent communities into which Attica had been previously 
divided. 

There were two Athenian festivals which had the name of Panathe- 
naea ; one called the Great and the other the Less. The former was cele- 
brated once in every five years, with great magnificence, and attracted 



THE PANATHENjEA. 213 



spectators from all parts of Greece. The latter was celebrated every 
year in the Piraeus. In both the Panathenaea there were gymnastic 
contests, among which the torch race seems to have been very popular. 
In the time of Socrates a torch race on horseback was introduced at 
the Less Panathenaea. At the Great Panathenaea there was also a musi- 
cal contest, and a recitation of the Homeric poems by rhapsodists ; in 
these contests the victors were rewarded with vessels of sacred oil. The 
most celebrated part of the grand Panathenaic festival, was the solemn 
procession of the Peplos, or sacred robe of Athena. This Peplos was 
covered with embroidery, the work of maidens belonging to the noblest 
families of Athens, representing the battles of the Gods and the Giants, 
especially the exploits of Zeus and Athena, and also the achievements 
of the heroes in the Attic mythology ; hence, Aristophanes speaks of 
men worthy of this land and the Peplos.* 

At the celebration of the festival, the Peplos was brought down from 
the Acropolis where it was wrought, suspended like a sail upon a ship, 
and then drawn through the principal parts of the city to the Parthe- 
non, and there placed before the statue of the goddess within. The 
old men carried olive branches, the young men wore armor, and the 
voung women carried baskets on their heads, and were called Cane- 
phores.f On this occasion, the sacrifices were very numerous, and 
during the supremacy of Athens, every subject state was obliged to 
furnish an ox for the festival. It was made a season of joy, and even 



* "Minerva (or Science) sprang from the head of Jove, contrived the texture of the 
universe, and to her, crowded with curious representations, is carried the robe, its em- 
blem, in solemn procession from the town to her temple in the citadel." This idea 
gives much significance to the sacred Peplos. 

t Canephores. — When a sacrifice was to be offered, the round cake, the chaplet of 
flowers, the knife used to slay the victim, and sometimes the frankincense were depos- 
ited in a flat, circular basket, called calathus, which was frequently carried to the altar 
on the head of a virgin. This practice was observed more especially at Athens. When 
the sacrifice was offered by a private citizen, either his daughter or some unmarried 
female of his family officiated as Canephoros ; but in the Panathenaea, the Dionysia. 
and other public festivals, two virgins of the first Athenian families were appointed 
for the purpose. 

That the office was ao counted highly honorable, appears from the fact, that the re- 
sentment of Harmodius, which instigated him to kill Hipparchus, arose from the insult 
offered by the latter in f( rbidding his sister to walk as Canephoros in the Panathenaic 
procession. 

In architecture, Canephores have sometimes been erroneously called Caryatides ; th6 
former are properly used only by the side of an altar, and were never applied by the 
Greeks in this manner to columns. 



214 GREC7.AN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

prisoners were liberated that they might take part in the general re- 
joicing, 

The Minerva of the Romans corresponded in some measure with the 
Pallas-Athene of the Greeks. She was the patroness of arts and indus- 
try, and the mental powers were considered as under her peculiar care. 
She was the deity of schools : her statue was always placed in them, 
and the five days of the festival called Quinquatria, celebrated in the 
month of March, were holidays to the scholars. At their expiration, 
they presented their master with a gift called Minerval. According to 
Yarro, Minerva was also the protecting goddess of olive grounds ; but 
it may be doubted whether this was not a transference of one of the 
attributes of Pallas- Athene. 

The festivals of Minerva were named Minervalia, or Quinquatria. 
They were two in number ; the former, called the Greater, were cele- 
brated in March, the time when, according to the Tuscan discipline, 
Minerva cast her lightnings. It was named Quinquatrus as being on 
the fifth day after the Ides ; the ignorance of the Romans made them 
extend the festival to five days ; it was followed by the Tubilustrum. 
The Lesser was in the Ides of June, and was celebrated by the Unte 
players. As both the trumpet and flute came to the Romans from 
Etruria, this proves Minerva to have been introduced there from that 
country. Therefore, no derivation of her name can be given, as it does 
not seem to be a translation. 

Athena is represented as a beauty of the severer kind, and without 
the grace and delicacy which for instance distinguished Aphrodite. Dig- 
nity, and a becoming air, firmness and composure, with regular features, 
and a certain masculine sternness, form the peculiar characteristics of 
her face and figure. Hence the heads of her are so like Alexander the 
Great, that they have been occasionally mistaken for his. Her dress 
and attributes are adapted to her character. She has a helmet upon 
her head, and a plume nodding formidably in the air. In her right 
hand she holds a spear, and in her left grasps a shield with the head 
of the dying Medusa upon it. The same figure, with all its terrors and 
beauties, is also on her breast-plate ; and sometimes she is represented 
with serpents about her shoulders. An owl, the bird sacred to her, is 
sometimes seen hovering over her helmet. 

It was common among the Romans to transfer the distinguishing 
attr bute of their divinities to the statues of their emperors. This kind 



ATHENA OR MINERVA. 



215 



of flattery was in no point car- 
ried so far by the ancients, as 
in the Grorgon's head on Athe- 
na's breast-plate, as the empe- 
rors were fond of this badge 
of strength and wisdom. There 
might be found a series of Ro- 
man Emperors, from Augustus 
to Gallienus, with this attri- 
bute on their breast-plates, 
except, perhaps, two or three 
of whom scarce any figures re- 
main. The strongest for the 
dying cast of the eyes, is on the 
bust of Nero at Florence, and 
answers to Virgil's fine de- 
scription. (Mn. iii. v. 438.) 
In most of her statues, 
Athena is represented as seat- 
ed, and sometimes holds in her 
hand a distaff instead of a 
spear. When she was depict- 
ed as the goddess of the liberal arts; she was arrayed in a variegated 
veil. Sometimes her helmet was covered with the figure of a cock, 
which, on account of its great courage, was appropriated to the deity of 
war. Some of her statues represented her helmet with a sphinx in the 
middle, supported on either side by griffins ;* and on some medals a 
chariot drawn by four horses ; and in others a dragon or serpent ap- 
pears with winding spires at the tops of her helmet. 




* Griffin — A fabulous animal, said to be generated between the Lion and the 
Eagle. It is described as having the head and paws of the lion, the ears of the 
horse, the wings of the eagle, and a crest formed like the dorsal fins of a fish. Accord- 
ing to iElian, in the fourth book of his History of Animals, this creature derived its 
origin from India. Its back was covered with black feathers, its breast with red, and 
its wings with white. Ctesias, Herodotus, and other writers, also give similar descrip- 
tions of the Griffin. 

According to a tradition of the Bactrians, the gold mines of the country were guard- 
ed by Griffins. The Griffin is also one of the attributes of Apollo ; and according to 
Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius, the Indians figured the sun in a quadriga drawn 
by Griffins. 



216 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

The shield or corselet with the Gorgon's head is supposed by some 
to represent the full-orbed moon ; by others it is regarded as the em- 
blem of divine wisdom. 

It was customary among the Egyptians and other Armorians to place 
upon the architrave of their temples some emblem of their tutelary 
deity. Among others, the serpent was considered a most salutary one, 
of which they made use to signify superior skill, wisdom, or knowledge. 
A beautiful female countenance, with an assemblage of serpents, was 
made to denote divine wisdom. 

These devices upon temples were often regarded as talismans, and 
were supposed to have a hidden and salutary influence by which the 
temple was preserved. In the temple of Minerva at Tegea (where she 
was worshipped from the earliest times), was some sculpture of Medusa, 
which was said to have been given by the goddess herself for the pre- 
servation of the city. It was probably from this opinion that the 
Athenians had the head of Medusa represented upon the walls of their 
Acropolis, and it was made the badge of many cities, as we find from 
various coins. 

Pallas- Athene is in Homer, and in the general, popular system, the 
g "-ddess of wisdom and skill. In war she is opposed to Ares, the wild 
war-god, as the patroness and teacher of just and scientific warfare. 
Therefore she is on the side of the Greeks, and he on that of the Tro- 
jans. But on the shield of Achilleus, where the people of the besieged 
town were represented as going forth to lie in ambush, they are led by 
A.res and Athena together ; possibly to denote the union and skill 
required for that service Every prudent chief was supposed to be 
under the patronage of Athena ; therefore, Odysseus (or Ulysses) was 
her special favorite, whom she relieved from all perils, and whose son 
Telemachos she also took under her protection, assuming a human form 
to be his guide and director. In like manner Cadmos, Heracles, Per- 
seus, and other heroes, were favored by this goddess. 

As the patroness of arts and industry in general, Pallas-Athene was 
regarded as the inspirer and teacher of all able artists. Thus she 
taught Epios to form the wooden horse, by means of which Troy was 
taken : and she also superintended the building of the ship Argo. 
She was expert in female accomplishments, having woven her own robe 
and that of Hera, which last she is said to have embroidered very richly. 
When Pandora was made for the ruin of man, she was attired by Pal* 



THE JEOLS OR SHIELD. 



217 



las-Athene ; and when* Iason was setting forth in quest of the golden 
fleece, she gave him a mantle wrought by herself. She is said to have 
taught this art to mortal females, who had won her affection. 

By the Homerid, Athena and Hephaestos are united as the civilizers 
and benefactors of mankind by means of the arts which they taught 
them, and we find them in intimate union in the mythic systems of 
Attica. 

Homer thus describes Pallas-Athene, as arraying herself in the 
armor of Zeus, when preparing to accompany Hera to the plain where 
the Greeks and Trojans were engaged in conflict : 

"But Athenaee, child of Zeus supreme, 
The aegis holder, on her father's floor 
Let fall the peplos various, which she 
Herself had wrought, and labored with her hands. 
The tunic then of cloud-collecting Zeus 
She on her put, and clad herself in arms 
For tearful war ; and round her shoulders cast 
The fringed aegis dire, which all about 
Was compassed with fear. In it was strife, 
In it was strength, and in it chill Pursuit ; 
In it the Gorgon head, the portent dire — 
Dire and terrific, the great prodigy 
Of aegis-holding Zeus. Upon her head 
She placed the four -coned helmet formed of gold, 
Fitting the footmen of a hundred towns. 
The flaming car she mounted, seized the spear, 
Great, heavy, solid, wherewith the strong-sized 
Maiden the ranks of heroes vanquisheth, 
With whom she is wroth." 

The aegis or shield of Zeus and Athena was 
supposed to have been made originally of the 
skin of a goat, and afterwards by Hephaestos , 
of brass, and rendered terrible by a Gorgon's | 
head being sculptured upon it. Lactantius says, i 
that it was made of the skin of the goat which \ 
suckled Jupiter, and that he first used it against \ 
the Titans., iEgis is also used for the pieces of 
goat-skin with which the warriors covered their 
breasts and shoulders as a guard against the weapons of their enemies. 
A variety of ancient monuments attest the antiquity of this practice. 

Homer gives to the aegis of Zeus the power of being both offensive 
and defensive, as all his deities, with whatever circumstances they are 




218 • GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

endued in common with mortals, are made to possess some peculiar 
and supernatural power. The blood which issues from their wounds 
is ichor; their drink is nectar ; and their food is ambrosia. This poet 
always personifies the effects which the arms of his gods and heroes, 
and the charms of his gods and goddesses, have over mortals ; placing 
in the girdle of Aphrodite the most attractive charms of love, which 
influence in secret the hearts of the wisest. He who on the buckler 
of Agamemnon has placed Fear and Terror, naturally added to the 
aegis of Zeus, Force and Discord ; and to add more honor to the arms 
of this most powerful god, he places the head of the terrible Gorgon 
with its intertwined serpents in the middle of his breast-plate. These 
are the arms which gave to Jupiter the name of JEgiochus, the holder 
of the iEgis. 

The aegis of Athena, with which she descended into the camp of the 
Greeks, to excite them to battle and dissuade them from the disgraceful 
intentions they had conceived of abandoning Troy and returning 
home, is described by Homer, as precious, indestructible, and eternal, 
fringed with a border composed of a hundred tufts of gold, each valued 
at a hundred oxen.* 

The ferocious custom of cutting off the heads of their enemies, or 
scalping them, as practised by barbarous nations, and which is un- 
doubtedly the origin of the aegis, is sometimes found even among the 
Greeks ; as in the Iliad we find Diomedes cutting off the head of Dolon. 
Among ancient nations, the head or scalp of an enemy was carried as a 
mark of triumph on their shields ; and in later times they imitated it 
in metal for the centre and ornament of their bucklers. On one of the 
vases in Sir W. Hamilton's collection, now in the British Museum, is 
represented a large buckler, bearing in the middle a human head which 
has nothing in common with the Gorgon. In more modern times, a 
head was placed on the cuirass. Homer, in describing the aegis, does 
not mention its being covered with scales, but only a skin, in the mid- 
dle of which is a Gorgon's head encircled with snakes. The scales 
appear to be a posterior addition, and give an idea of greater resistance. 
Virgil has not omitted the scales in describing the aegis forged by the 
Cyclops in the depths of iEtna. 

As Athena typifies the mind or wisdom of Zeus, there is a peculiar 



* Theseus gave to his money the impression of an ox. Hence the expression, worth 
ten or a hundred oxen. 



THE PALLADIUM. 219 



propriety in her wielding the same aegis with her great parent. But 
this armor was not peculiar to Zeus and Athena, although generally 
appropriated to them by the poets. In the fifteenth book of the Iliad, 
Apollo marches at the head of the Greeks, conducting to combat the 
people who followed the mighty, terrific, shagged, dazzling aegis which 
the artist Hephaestos had given to Zeus. In the temple of Zeus at 
Olympia, there was a statue of Victory which had a golden buckler, 
on which were the aegis and Gorgon, probably because victory proceeded 
from Jupiter ; and Rome, for a similar reason, namely, being under 
the special protection of Jupiter and Minerva, was personified on a 
beautiful medallion, as a female warrior armed with the aegis. 

The aegis at length descended from deities to heroes, warriors and 
emperors. On a fine cameo, in the royal library at Paris, Ulysses is 
covered with the aegis, as a symbol of the protection of Minerva. This 
allegory of the protection which the gods offered to men, became a 
species of amulet ; and above all, the Gorgon, or Medusa's head, was 
conceived by the ancients to have the virtue of averting witchcraft, or 
enchantment ; for which reason the Roman emperors, without bearing 
what is more properly the aegis, have a Gorgon's head sculptured in 
the middle of their breasts on the lorica or brigantine. The only in- 
stance generally known, of the aegis being fixed on the arm, is on an 
intaglio in the cabinet of the Emperor of Russia, representing Jupiter 
Axur, or the Beardless. Jupiter is generally represented with the 
aegis on the left shoulder, as in the beautiful cameo of the royal cabinet 
at Paris, which represents Jupiter iEgiochus. The aegis on the knees, 
as in the figure of Tiberius, on the grand cameo of the same cabinet, 
indicates peace and repose to the world. 

The Palladium, a celebrated statue of the goddess Pallas- Athene, 
was about three cubits high, and represented her as in a sitting pos- 
ture, holding a pike in her right hand and a distaff and spindle in her 
left. 

The Palladium is said to have fallen from heaven near the tent of 
Ilus, at the time when that prince was employed in building the cita- 
del of Ilion or Troy ; and ApDilo, by an oracle, declared that the city 
should never be taken whilst the Palladium was contained within its 
walls. Hence, the assailants of Troy became exceedingly anxious to 
get possession of this treasure ; and Ulysses, accompanied by Dioniedes, 
undertook to purloin it. Having entered the citadel at night by stealth, 



220 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

they stole the Palladium away ; the consequence of which act was the 
fall of Troy. The goddess, however, did not fail to testify her wrath 
at this ungallant action, for the Palladium appeared to receive life and 
motion at the period of its capture. In allusion to this, Virgil makes 
Sinon say : 

" Scarce to the camp the sacred image came, 
When from her eyes she flashed a living flame ; 
A briny sweat bedew' d her limbs around, 
And thrice she sprang indignant from the ground ; 
Thrice was she seen in martial rage to wield 
Her ponderous spear, and shake her blazing shield." 

(Mn. ii. 228.) 

It is averred, that anciently, there existed a statue of Pallas at Rome, 
which was said to be the veritable, heaven-descended Palladium above 
spoken of; that it was brought into Italy by iEneas, deposited in the 
temple of Vesta, and secured as well as possible from capture by the 
construction of others precisely similar to it. It was regarded as the 
fated pledge of the continuance of their empire ; and not even the 
Pontifex Maximus was allowed to behold it. Hence, on ancient gems, 
we sometimes see Vesta represented with the Palladium. 

Herodian relates, that when in the reign of Commodus, the temple 
of Vesta was consumed, the Palladium was for the first time exposed 
to public view, the Vestal virgins having conveyed it through the Via 
Sacra to the palace of the emperor. This was the only instance of its 
having been disturbed since the time when Metellus, the Pontifex, 
rescued it from the flames on a similar occasion. On the reign of 
Elagabalus, however, that emperor, with daring impiety, caused the 
sacred statue to be brought into his bedchamber. 

In order to account for the Romans having the Palladium among 
them, it was pretended that Diomedes restored it to iEneas in obedience 
to the will of Heaven when the latter had reached Italy; and that 
iEneas being engaged in a sacrifice at the time, an individual named 
Nautes received the image, and hence the Nautian, not the Julian 
family, performed the rites of Minerva. 

This story deserves to be classed with another which states that the 
Ilienses were never deprived by the Greeks of the statue of Minerva: 
but concealed it in a cavern until the period of the Mithridatic war, 
when it was discovered and sent to Rome by Fimbria. 

From all that lias been said, it would appear that the ancient cities 



THE PARTHENON. 221 



in general were accustomed to have tutelary images, which they held 
peculiarly sacred, and with which their safety was thought to be inti- 
mately connected; and as Minerva was in an especial sense the pro- 
tectress of cities, it was but natural that many places should contend 
for the honor of having the true image of that goddess contained within 
its walls. 

Carrying off the Palladium, has, from ancient times, been a favorite 
subject among artists. Among the most considerable of those works 
of sculpture which were framed on it, however, one only remains still 
in existence — a basso-relievo of marble, preserved in the Spada Palace. 
Pliny makes mention of an artist of the name of Pytheas, who, upon a 
vase, depicted in relievo Ulysses and Diomedes stealing the Palladium. 
A great number of engraved gems present the same story at different 
points of it, and may be said to form a mythic circle of the raising of 
the Palladium. 

The Parthenon, or chief temple of Athena, the virgin goddess, and 
patroness of Athens, stood on the summit of the Acropolis. This cele- 
brated structure is now reduced to the last stages of ruin and decay ; 
little remains of what formerly constituted one of the most elegant, if 
not the most spacious monuments of heathen superstition, but this little 
is venerable for its age and history ; and highly interesting for the 
evidences which it still affords of Grecian skill in architecture. Its 
. beautiful proportions are, indeed, now lost in the surrounding mass of 
miserable huts ; its glittering whiteness dimmed by the corroding hand 
of time, and its towering columns shattered and cast down by the mer- 
ciless engines of modern warfare ; but yet, while a vestige is to be found 
of such excellence, it will not cease to be inestimable to the scientific 
traveller, and the philosophical inquirer into the state of society in 
former ages. 

The original Hecatompedon, so called on account of its being a hun- 
dred feet square, was a very ancient edifice dedicated to Athena, and 
probably not remarkable for its decorations. It was burnt by the Per- 
sian troops when they gained possession of the Acropolis in the year 
B. C. 480, under Xerxes. On the site which had been already ren- 
dered sacred to the tutelary deity, Pericles erected the magnificent 
edifice denominated the Parthenon, and spared no expense in bringing 
to perfect.' on the immortal work, which employed the united talents 
of the first sculptors and architects whom the world has ever seen — of 



222 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Phidias, Ictinus, and Callicrates. The new temple occupied more than 
double the space of its predecessor, being two hundred and twenty-seven 
feet in length, and one hundred and one in width. It stood on a pave- 
ment elevated by three steps, and was surrounded by forty-six columns 
of the Doric order, eight in front of each portico, and seventeen on 
either flank, reckoning those of the angles twice. The porticoes were 
both surmounted by pediments filled with statues ; those in the eastern 
end or entrance representing, according to Pausanias, the mythological 
story of the nativity of Athena, and those in the hinder or western 
pediments, being figures of the deities present at the contest of Athena 
and Poseidon for the honor of naming and patronising the newly-built 
city. The Metopes were executed in high relief, and each displayed a 
distinct group of a Centaur and Lapitha. About twelve feet within 
the outer range of columns of each portico, was another row of less 
diameter, the frieze of which was continued round the walls of the 
cella, or inclosed area of the temple ; this frieze exhibited in low relief 
and continued succession, an amazing number and variety of figures 
forming the Panathenaic procession. The interior of the dwelling was 
divided into the cella and opisthodomus. In the middle of the cella 
was an oblong space, sunk a little more than an inch below the level of 
the opisthodomus. At the eastern end of the shrine was erected the 
famous idol mentioned in the life of Phidias, and thus described by 
Pausanias : " The image itself is of ivory and gold : on the middle of 
her crest is placed the figure of a sphinx. It is erect, and covered- 
with a garment down to the feet. There is a head of Medusa wrought 
in ivory on her breast, and a Victory four cubits high. In her hand 
she holds a spear, at her feet lies her shield, and at the bottom of the 
spear is a dragon, which dragon may be Ericthonius. On the base is 
carved the nativity of Pandora." 

The open space between the front wall of the cella and the hinder 
columns, about twelve feet in depth, was called the pronaos, and that 
corresponding to it at the other extremity, the posticum, elevated two 
steps above the portico : from thence there was another step of an inch 
only in height, into the opisthodomus. The roof is supposed to have 
been of wood, overlaid with marble slabs, in a regular form imitating 
tiles, the joinings of which were covered with narrow pieces of marble, 
eo fitted in as to preserve the interstices from the weather, End termi- 
nated at the eaves by an upright ornament. 

Such was the Parthenon under its heathen masters : there is no 



THE PARTHENON. 223 



precise mention made of the date of its transformation into a Christian 
church ; but it was probably despoiled of its remaining treasures by 
the ruthless Alaric. It retained its idol down to the time of the Roman 
emperors Valentinian and Valens, B. C. 364 ; and Attica, in common 
with other states of Greece, suffered about forty years afterwards from 
the predatory incursions of the Gothic king. The building, however, 
was not destroyed, and having passed from a Christian to a Moham- 
medan place of worship, was found by Sir G. Wheeler in 1676, almost 
entire except the roof, which had been constructed of a more modern 
fashion, to suit the religious purposes to which the Greek Christians 
had applied the edifice. " When the Christians," said Wheeler, " con- 
secrated it to serve God in, they let in the light at the east end ; which 
is all that it yet hath. And not only that, but made a semicircle for 
the holy place, according to their rites ; which the Turks have not yet 
much altered. This was separated from the rest by jasper pillars ; two 
of which on each side yet remain. Within this chancel is a canopy, 
sustained by four porphyry pillars, with beautiful white marble chap- 
ters of the Corinthian order. But the holy table under it is removed 
Beyond the canopy are seats two or three degrees, one above another, 
in a semicircle ; where the Bishop's presbyters used to sit in time of 
communion, upon certain solemn days." * * # " On both sides, and 
towards the door is a kind of gallery, made with two rows of pillars, 
twenty-two below and twenty-three above. The odd pillar is over 
the arch of entrance, which was left for the passage. It being now 
turned into a mosque, the niche of the Turk's devotion is made in the 
corner on the side of the altar, at the right hand, by which is their 
place of prayer ;. and on the other side a pulpit to read their law in, as 
is usual in all mosques. The Turks, according to their measure of 
wit, have washed over the beautiful white marble within with lime. 
At one side of the sacred choir, there are four presses made in the wall, 
and shut up with doors of marble. They say no one dares open them, 
and that one undertaking to do it, immediately died the first he opened : 
and that the plague soon after followed in the town." 

About eleven years after this account was given, the Venetians 
besieged the citadel of Athens under the command of General K6- 
ningsberg, and threw a shell from the hill of the Museum, which unfor 
tunately fell on the devoted Parthenon, set fire to the powder which 
the Turks had made therein, and thus the roof was entirely destroyed; 
nineteen pillars were overthrown, and the whole building almost re- 



25£4 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

duced to ruins. The eastern pediment was nearly demolished ; and 
the Venetian general being afterwards desirous of carrying off the 
statue of Athena which adorned the western, had it removed ; thereby 
assisting in the defacement of the place without any good result to 
himself, for the group fell to the ground and was shattered to pieces. 

Since this period, every man of taste must have deplored the demo- 
lition of this noble structure, and the enlightened travellers who have 
visited the spot, have successively published engravings of its remains. 
But not content with these artistical labors and publications, more 
recent travellers have borne away with them the actual spoils of the 
Parthenon. The foremost of these was Lord Elgin, who about the 
year 1800, removed a variety of the matchless friezes, statues, etc., 
which were purchased of him by Parliament, on the part of the nation, 
and now form the most valuable and interesting portion of the British 
Museum. This act, at the time, called forth severe animadversions, 
though it is now well known that there was imminent danger of those 
relics of art being totally destroyed by the wanton barbarism of the 
Turks and others. 

Wordsworth gives the following animated description of this splen- 
did edifice in the days of its glory, which, at the risk of some repe- 
tition, we quote entire : Existing, in imagination, in the age of Peri- 
cles and his immediate successors, we now contemplate this city as it 
then exhibited itself to the eye. First, we direct our attention to the 
central work of the Acropolis. And let us here suppose ourselves as 
joining at this period that splendid procession of minstrels, priests, 
and victims, of horsemen and of chariots, which ascended to that place 
at the quinquennial solemnity of the great Panathensea. Aloft, above 
the heads of the train, the sacred Peplos, raised and stretched like a 
sail upon a mast, waves in the air : it is variegated with an embroidered 
tissue of battles of giants and of gods : it will be carried to the temple 
of the Minerva-Polias in the citadel, whose statue it is intended to 
adorn. In the bright season of summer, on the twenty-eighth day 
of the Athenian month Hecatombaeon, let us mount with this proces- 
sion to the western slope of the Acropolis. Towards the termination 
of its course, we are brought in -face of a colossal fabric of white mar- 
ble, which crowns the brow of the steep, and stretches itself from north 
to south across the whole western front of the citadel, which is about 
one hundred and twenty-seven feet in breadth. 



THE PARTHENON. 225 



The centre of this fabric consists of a portico sixty feet broad, and 
formed of six fluted columns of the Doric order, raised upon four steps, 
and intersected by a road passing through the midst of the columns, 
which are thirty feet in height, and support a noble pediment. From 
this portico two wings project about thirty feet to the west, each hav- 
ing three columns on the side nearest the portico in the centre. 

The architectural mouldings of the fabric glitter in the sun with 
brilliant tints of red and blue ; in the centre, the coffers of its soffits 
are spangled with stars, and the antae of the wings are fringed with an 
azure embroidery of ivy leaf. 

We pass along the avenue lying between two central columns of the 
portico, and through a corridor leading from it, and formed by three 
Ionic columns on each hand, and are brought in front of five doors of 
bronze ; the central one, which is the loftiest and broadest, being im- 
mediately before us. 

The structure which we are describing is the Propylaea or Vestibule 
of the Athenian citadel. It is built of Pentelic marble. In the year 
B. C. 437 it was commenced, and was completed by the architect 
Mnesicles in five years from that time. Its termination, therefore, 
coincides very nearly with the commencement of the Peloponnesian 
war. 

After a short pause, in order to contemplate the objects around us. 
to explore the gallery, adorned with the paintings of Polygerotus, in 
the left wing of the Propylaea, and to visit the temple of Victory on 
our right, which possesses four Ionic columns on its western and 
four at its eastern end, thus being approached by its two facades, and 
whose frieze is sculptured with figures of Persians and of Greeks fight- 
ing on the plain of Marathon, we return to the marble corridor of the 
Propylaea. 

We will now imagine that the great bronze doors, of which we have 
spoken as standing at the termination of this gallery, are thrown back 
upon their hinges, to admit the riders and charioteers, and all that 
long and magnificent array, of the Panathenaic procession, which 
stretches back from this spot to the area of the Agora at the western 
foot of the Citadel. We behold through this vista the interior of the 
Athenian Acropolis. We pass under the gateway before us, and enter 
its precincts, surrounded on all sides by massive walls : we tread the 
soil pn which the greatest men of the ancient world have walked ; and 
behold a building ever admired and imitated, and never equalled in 

15 



226 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

beauty. We stand on the platform which is at once the Temple, the 
Fortress, and the Museum of Athens. 

To speak, in the first instance, and very briefly, of minor objects 
here presented to our notice, which it is impossible to specify ia detail 
We behold before and around us almost a city of statues, raised upon 
marble pedestals, the works of noble sculptors — Phidias and Polycletus, 
of Alcamenes, and Praxiteles, and Myron — and commemorating the 
virtues of benefactors of Athens, or representing the objects of her 
worship : we see innumerable altars dedicated to heroes and to gods : 
we perceive large slabs of white marble inscribed with the records of 
Athenian history, with civil contracts and articles of peace, with the 
memorials of honors awarded to patriotic citizens or munificent stran- 
gers. 

Proceeding a little further, we have, on our left, raised on a high 
base, a huge statue of bronze, the labor of Phidias. It is seventy feet 
in height, and looks towards the west, upon the Areiopagos, the Agora, 
and the Pnyx, and far away over the iEgean Sea. It is armed with a 
long spear and oval shield, and bears a helmet on its head ; the point 
of the lance, and the crest of the casque, appearing above the loftiest 
building of the Acropolis, are visible to the sailor who approaches 
Athens from Sunium. 

This is Minerva-Promachus, the champion of Athens, who, looking 
down from her lofty eminence in the citadel, seems by her attitude and 
accoutrements to promise protection to the city beneath her, and to 
bid defiance to its enemies. 

Passing onward to the right, we arrive in front of the great marble 
Temple, which stands on the most elevated ground of the Acropolis. 
We see eight Doric columns of huge dimensions elevated on a platform, 
ascended by three steps at its western front. It has the same number 
on the east, and seventeen on each side. At either end, above the 
eight columns, is a lofty pediment, extending to a length of eighty feet, 
and furnished with nearly twenty figures of superhuman size. The 
group which we see before us, at the western end, represents the con- 
test of Minerva with Neptune for the soil of Athens ; the other, above 
the eastern front, exhibits the birth of the Athenian goddess. 

Beneath the cornice which ranges on all sides of the Temple, is the 
frieze, divided into compartments by an alternating series of tri- 
glyphs and metopes, the latter of which are ninety-two in number — 
fourteen on either front, and thirty-two on either flank : they are a 



THE PARTHENON. 227 



little more than four feet square, and are occupied by one or more 
figures in high relief ; they represent the actions of the goddess to 
whom the Temple is dedicated, and of the Heroes, especially those 
who were natives of Athens, who fought under her protection, and 
conquered by her assistance. They are the works of Phidias and his 
scholars ; and, together with the pediments at the two fronts, may be 
regarded as offering a history in sculpture of the most remarkable sub- 
jects contained in the mythology of Athens. 

Attached to the Temple, beneath each of the metopes on the eastern 
front, hang round shields covered with gold ; below them are inscribed 
the names of those who dedicated them as offerings to Minerva, in 
testimony of their gratitude for the victories they had won ; the spoils 
of which they shared with her, as she partook in the labors which 
achieved them. 

The members of the building above specified are enriched with a 
profusion of vivid colors, which throw around the fabric a joyful and 
festive beauty, admirably harmonizing with the brightness and trans- 
parency of the atmosphere which encircles it. The cornice of the ped 
iments is decorated with painted ovoli and arrows ; colored masanders 
twine along its amulets and beads, and honeysuckle ornaments wind 
beneath them : the pediments themselves are studded with disks of 
various hues ; the triglyphs of the frieze are streaked with tints which 
terminate in plate-bandes and guttas of azure dye ; gilded festoons 
hang on the architrave below them. It would, therefore, be a very 
erroneous idea to regard this Temple which we are describing merely 
as the best school of architecture in the world. It is also the noblest 
Museum of Sculpture and the richest Gallery of Painting. 

We ascend by three steps which lead to the door of the Temple at 
the posticum or west end, and stand beneath the roof of the peristyle. 
Here, before the end of the cella, and also at the pronaos or eastern 
front, is a range of six columns, standing upon a level raised above that 
of the peristyle by two steps. The cella itself is entered by one door 
at the west, and another at the east : it is divided into two apartments 
of unequal size, by a wall running from north to south ; of which the 
western, or smaller chamber, is called the Opisthodomus, and serves as 
the treasury of Athens ; the eastern is the Temple properly so called ; 
it contains the colossal statue of Minerva, the work of Phidias, com- 
posed of ivory and gold, and is peculiarly termed from that circum- 



228 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

stance, the Parthenon, or residence of the Virgin Goddess, a name by 
which the whole building is frequently described. 

At the summit of the exterior walls of the cella, and extending along 
the sides of it, is a frieze in low relief, representing the Panathenaic 
procession ; it is moving from west to east, and may be imagined to 
have just entered the Acropolis, by the gate of the Propylae, to have 
advanced to the south-west angle of the Temple, and then to have divi- 
ded itself into two lines, one of which proceeds first along the western 
end and then round the north-west corner and along the northern flank 
of the building ; the other by the southern flank, so that when they 
arrive at the eastern front they face each other. Here they are sepa- 
rated by twelve seated figures, of size superior to the rest, and of whom 
six face the north and six the south. They form a striking contrast, 
by their sedate attitudes, to the rapidity of the procession, composed 
of cars and horsemen chasing each other in quick succession, and in- 
creasing in speed as they approach the eastern front of the temple. 
The twelve figures which have been mentioned are Deities. To appear 
in their presence was the object of the Panathenaic procession, and by 
the juxta-position of their dignified calmness as the goal of its eager 
rapidity, the train itself seems, as it were, to pass insensibly from the 
restlessness of earth to the tranquillity of heaven. 

Such, then, is the Parthenon of Athens; the work of Ictinus and 
Callistratus, adorned with sculptures from the hand of Phidias and his 
scholars, completed under the administration of Pericles, in the year 
B. C. 439. 

The Peplos, borne in the Panathenaic solemnity, is destined to adorn 
the statue of Minerva-Polias, which stands in the beautiful and singu- 
lar Temple to the north of the Parthenon. The direction of this fabric 
is from east to west, its cella is seventy-three feet long, and thirty-seven 
broad, and, like that of the Parthenon, is divided into two apartments : 
but these two chambers, unlike those of that temple, are dedicated not 
to one, but to two different deities. This structure, when considered 
as a whole, is called the Erectheum, from the ancient king of Attica 
who was buried within it. Its eastern division is consecrated to Miner- 
va-Polias ; the western to Pandrosos : the eastern is faced by an Ionic 
hexastyle portico, and the level of the floor is eight feet higher than 
that of the rest of the building. At the northwest angle is an- 
other portico which consists of six Ionic columns — of which four are 
in front, namely, to the north, and one on each side — and leads into the 



THE PARTHENON 229 



western chamber. A third portico, at the south-west angle of the Tem- 
ple, conducting also into the western chamber, is formed not of columns, 
but of Caryatides, or rather, as they should be described, of Athenian 
virgins dressed in the Panathenaic costume. They are six in num- 
ber ; four of them standing in front towards the south, and one on 
each side : they are raised on a podium or dwarf wall, about four feet 
high from the ground.* 

The western wall of the cella is pierced by three windows, the aper- 
tures of which are narrower at the top than they are at the bottom, 
and by their interposition four Ionic columns engaged in the wall are 
separated from each other. A frieze of grey Eleusinian stone, to which 
sculptured figures are attached by metal cramps, surrounds the cella. 

This Temple has succeeded in name and site to one of the most 
ancient sanctuaries of Athens. On this account it bears the title of 
the ancient Temple of Minerva. The present building dates its com- 
mencement from the age of Pericles, although in all probability on ac- 
count of the death of that statesman, and the expense incurred by 
Athens in the Peloponnesian war, and a fire which injured the fabric 
in the year B. C. 406, it was not completed till about thirty years after 
his decease. 

Four different objects of great national interest, contained within 
the walls of the Erectheum, give it a sanctity and an importance une- 
qualled by that of any other temple in Athens. In its eastern chamber 
is the ancient statue of Minerva-Polias. made of olive-wood, which fell 
down from heaven. This was the Minerva who had contended with 
Neptune for the possession of the Athenian soil : she was the original 
protectress of the Acropolis and of Athens ; to her the embroidered 
Peplos at the festival of the Panathensea was dedicated ; it was to this, 
her Temple, that Orestes came as a supplicant from Delphi, when he 



* Caryatides. — Figures in long drapery used to support entablatures. Their origin, 
according to Vitruvius, was this : — The inhabitants of Carya, a city of Peloponnesus, 
made a league with the barbarians in the Persian war against the other people of Greece ; 
but the Persians being conquered, the Carytes were afterwards besieged, their city taken 
and reduced to ashes, the men put to the sword, and the women carried away to slavery. 

To perpetuate the memory of this victory, the conquerors caused public edifices to be 
erected, in which, as a mark of servility and degradation, the figures of the captives, in 
their matronal robes and ornaments, were used instead of columns in the servile office 
of supporting the entablatures ; thus transmitting to posterity their infamy and their 
punishment. The most genuine specimen of these statues was in the Pandroscium at 
Athens. One of these figures is now in the British Museum. 



230 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

fled from the Eurnenides : before her statue burns the golden lamp 
both night and day, which is fed with oil only once a year : the sacred 
serpent, the guardian of the Acropolis, dwells here : here is the silver- 
footed throne on which Xerxes sat when he viewed the battle of Sala* 
mis — here the sword of Mardonius, the Persian general at Platsea. 

In the western chamber, that of Pandrosos, is the salt spring which 
Neptune fetched from the ground in his contest with Minerva : upon 
the rock there is the impression of the trident with which he struck it ; 
there, too, is the sacred olive which Minerva produced from the soil to 
support her claim to its possession, From this tree all the olive trees 
of Attica are said to have sprung : and thus the most valuable produce 
of the Athenian territory is protected and consecrated by its alliance 
with this sacred plant, which is under the immediate care of the tute- 
lary goddess of Athens. 

HEPH^STOS OR VULCAN. 

Hephcestos, the Olympian artist, is in Homer the son of Zeus and 
Hera. According to Hesiod, he is the son of Hera alone, who in this 
wished not to be outdone by Zeus, who had produced Athena from his 
own brain. 

Hephsestos is the god of fire, especially as a power of a physical 
nature, that manifests itself in volcanic districts, and as the indispen- 
sable means in arts and manufactures. Hence fire is called the breath 
of Hephsestos, and the name of the god is used by the Greek and 
Roman poets as synonymous with it. As a flame arises from a little 
spark, so the god of fire was delicate and weakly from his birth, for 
which reason he was so disliked by his mother, that she flung him from 
Olympos. He was received by Thetis and Eurynome, and dwelt with 
them for nine years in a grotto, surrounded by Oceanos, and there 
made for them a variety of ornaments. 

According to later writers, Hephasstos was educated with the rest 
of the gods in heaven, and was expelled from Olympos by Zeus. Hera 
raised a storm, which drove Heracles out of his course at sea ; Zeus 
then tied her hands and feet together, and suspended her between 
heaven and earth. Hepha3stos attempted to free his mother, and, for 
this act, was kicked down from heaven by Zeus. The island of Lem 
nos is said to have received the god : 

" His hand was known 
In heaven by m.-'.ny a tower' d structure high. 



HEPH^STOS OR VULCAN. 231 

Nor was his name unheard or unadorn'd 
In ancient Greece. And in Ausonian land 
Men call'd him Mulciber ; and how he fell 
From heaven they fabled ; thrown by angry Jove 
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements. From morn 
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 
A summer's day; and with the setting sun, 
Dropp'd from the zenith like a falling star, 
On Lemnos, th' iEgean isle. Thus they relate." 

In this island, where earthquakes and eruptions of volcanoes were 
frequently experienced, and also in the smoking of iEtna, in Sicily, 
from whose bowels the fire which found no vent often produced a sub- 
terranean thundering, imagination has discovered suitable places for 
the work-shops of Hephgestos, in which the mighty hammers of the Cy- 
clopes resounded. 

On Olympos, he is said also to have had his own palace, imperishable 
and shining like stars. It contained his work-shop, with the anvil, and 
twenty bellows which worked spontaneously at his bidding, and there 
he made his beautiful and marvellous works. All the habitations 
of the gods were of his workmanship, as were their chariots and 
arms. He made armor for Achilleus and other mortal heroes. The 
fatal collar of Harmonia was the work of his hands. The brass- 
footed, brass-throated, fire-breathing bulls of JEetes, the king of 
Colchis, were the gift of Hephgestos ; and he made for Alcinoos, king 
of the Phseacians, the gold and silver dogs which guarded his house. 
For himself he formed the golden maidens, who waited on him, and 
whom he endowed with reason and speech. He gave to Minos, king 
of Crete, the brazen man Talos, who each day compassed his island 
three times, to guard it from the invasion of strangers. The brazen 
cup in which the sun-god and his horses and chariot are carried round 
the earth every night, was also the work of this god. 

The first work of Hephsestos is said to have been a throne of gold, 
which he presented to his mother, to avenge himself for her want of 
affection towards him — upon which Hera was no sooner seated than 
she found herself unable to move. The gods attempted to set her at 
liberty by breaking the chains with which she was confined ; but to no 
purpose, as Hephgestos alone had the power to unloose them 

It is worthy of remark that the only instances we meet of 3 lephsestos 
working in any other substance than metal are in Hesiod. where, at 
,the command of Zeus, he forms Pandora of earth and water, and where 



232 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

he uses gypsum and ivory in the formation of the shield which he inakes 
for Heracles. That framed by him for Achilleus, in the Iliad, is all 
of metal. 

He was celebrated lb y the ancient poets for his ingenious works. 
By their imagination, painful and wearisome labor, in a work-shop filled 
with steam and smoke, joined to the idea of sublime art, that works 
there indefatigably with productive genius, was wrought up into this 
divine being, whose entire strength was concentrated in the mighty 
arm that managed the weighty hammer upon the anvil, while the lamed 
feet were enfeebled and tottering. 

He was hurled from heaven, for smoke and black steam, together 
with half-smothered flame, do not agree with pure ether ; they are in 
contradiction to the idea of serenity, beauty, and divine dignity. Never- 
theless, Fancy contrived to usher even this personage into the splendid 
theatre of high, divine Olympos, securing to him a place among the 
celestials, by bestowing upon him the comical part on the heavenly 
stage. The gods raise peals of laughter when they behold Hephsestos 
in the place of Ganymedes, making the round in the assembly of the 
immortals, reaching them the nectar cup, and jesting himself at his 
own bodily defects. 

JTet the bold imagination of the ancients, which we cannot help ad- 
miring, found means on the other hand to shroud again this comical 
character in divine power and sublimity, by connecting with it a dig- 
nity superior to every thing human. Her grand picture of the super- 
natural world, far from being degraded by a figure like that of He- 
phaestos, becomes, on the contrary, more variously shaded, and gains 
new charms. The halting son of Hera, on account of his deformity, 
was thrown from Olympos, and after his re-admission into the commu- 
nity of the gods, ministered the nectar cup in the place of the graceful 
Granymedes in so awkward a manner, as to excite the shouting mirth 
of the immortals. The same Hephaestos is the inimitable artist, with 
whose assistance even they themselves cannot dispense. 

At his work-shop, the limping feet are not prejudicial to him ; he 
needs only his arms. And with strong arm, indeed, manages he the 
stithy ! Air and fire are at his command. At his nod the bellows 
blow and kindle the flames, producing a greater or gentler heat, ac- 
cording to his wants. Every one of his ideas is instantaneously 
carried into effect with divine genius, and from beneath his skilful 
hands, the work springs forth majestically. It is also an easy matter 



HEPHjESTOS OR VULCAN. 



233 



to him to infuse life and mo- 
tion into his creations. He for- 
ges twenty tripods rolling up- 
on wheels, which, at his com- 
mand, enter the assembly of 
the gods, and return to him 
again. He formed for himself 
female servants of gold, that 
support him when he is walk- 
ing. When he leaves his stithy, 
he arrays himself in royal attire 
and bears a sceptre. 

Though a deformed cripple, 
he has the most beautiful be- 
ing that dwells on Olympos for 
his wife. Thus plastic art, al- 
though in its appearance poor 
and uncomely, is, in the rep- 
resentation of Hephsestos, mar- 
ried to beauty itself. By this marriage between Aphrodite and the 
god of fire, the comical turn of his character gains the highest charm ; 
the conjugal unanimity of the divine couple being disturbed by 
the jealousy of Hephsestos. The story of the artificial net, which 
the offended husband contrived to throw over Ares and Aphrodite. 
while he called together all the celestials to show them the disgraceful 
spectacle, and to complain of his misfortune, is, in ancient poetry, a 
source of amusement, both among gods and men. 

Especially in the person of Hephoestos do we find that endeavor to 
unite opposite and seemingly contradictory features into one character, 
which is peculiar to the fictions of the ancients. With regard to what 
is external, he, the ugliest of all the celestials, is married to the love- 
liest being that Fancy ever created ; in his character, the ridiculous is 
united with dignity; and in his body, feebleness is connected with 
strength ; the strong and skilful arm compensating for the limping 
feet. We are by no means to consider this apparent inconsistency in 
the poetical productions of the ancients as a defect, originating, per- 
haps, in the heedless play of humor ; on the contrary, we are rather to 
admire the ingenuity and boldness of Imagination who shrinks not 




from seeming difficulties, and succeeds in adjusting the variety of ma- 



234 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



terials, collected together for the picture of her celestial world, into so 
happy and concordant a composition. 

The fiction of Hephaestos also shows us the high estimation in which 
the ancients held the art of working metals ; it is, of all the arts, 
the peculiar business of a god. 

Although Hephaestos first appears in a clear and distinct form among 
the modern gods, yet his person may be faintly recognized through 
the clouds in which the ancient deities are shrouded. The Curetes, or 
Corybantes, were, according to an old tradition, his descendants. He 
was likewise one of the most ancient Egyptian deities, or perhaps the 
most ancient of them. The Guretes made a noise with their weapons, 
which, as tradition relates, were of iron. The Cyclopes, before the 
reign of Zeus, had prepared thunder and lightning in the caverns of 
the earth ; and Earth herself had already forged the sickle with which 
Saturn was maimed. According to another tradition, the Cabiri, a 
kind of mysterious beings, who, in the remotest times of antiquity, 
were venerated in Egypt and Samothrace, were sons or descendants 
of Hephaestos. His person itself, however, is always hidden in dark- 
ness. 

That mythology represents the fine arts as assisting each other, is a 
fine and significant intimation. When Prometheus was occupied in 
forming his men, both Athena and Hephaestos lent him their aid ; and 
when the latter was afterwards, at the command of Zeus, obliged to 
fasten the father of mankind to the fatal rock, he, not daring to resist 
the will of the thunderer, complied with it, amid tears and lamenta- 
tions. 

Vulcan, the male artist among the celestials, had a desire to marry 
Minerva, the female one ; but she withstood his entreaties as well as 
threats. His son Erichthonios, the earth-born, is said, however, to have 
been always a favorite with Minerva. She appointed him king of her 
beloved city of Athens, where the desire of hiding his mis-shapen feet, 
both of which were those of a dragon,* led him to the invention of the 
covered four-wheel carriage. 

The God of Fire, represented by Homer, on occasion of Thetis com- 
ing to his dwelling to see him and his wife, and to order at the same 



* It is worthy of observation, that, in the mythological fictions of the ancients, to 
almost every being sprung from the earth, or related to it, dragon form, or dragon feet 
are ascribed. 



HEPHiESTOS OR VULCAN. 235 

time a new suit of armor for her son Achilles, is entirely human. No 
sooner had he heard of the august Thetis, the old friend of his house, 
than, in order to appear with decency in the presence of the goddess, 
he before leaving his work-shop, washed his face, breast, neck and hands, 
with a wet sponge, lest his visitor should be offended at beholding him 
covered with dust, to which his occupation necessarily exposed him. 

In the Trojan war, Vulcan, at the command of his mother, opposed 
himself with his flames to the river god, Scamander. who, with swell- 
ing floods, pursued Achilles, and a terrible fight took place between 
the two elements. Vulcan, after having scorched the shores of the 
river, and consumed the slain bodies that were lying there, turned his 
high flaring flames, with their hissing tongues, against the rising wa- 
ters, so as to burn their lotus, as well as their reeds and rushes, to 
make the water boil, and strike the fishes with anguish and terror. 
Then the afflicted river god besought Juno to have mercy on him, and 
she bade Vulcan cease tormenting the suppliant : " Have done ! It is 
not meet that an immortal god should be thus distressed for the sake 
of mortal men." (II. xxi. 379.) 

The worship of Vulcan was well established, particularly in Egypt, 
at Athens, and at Rome. In the sacrifices that were offered to him, it 
was usual to burn the whole victim, and not to reserve a part as in 
immolations to other gods. A calf and a boar-pig were the principal 
victims offered. 

Vulcan was sometimes represented as lame and deformed, holding 
a hammer in the air, ready to strike ; while with the other hand he 
turns, with his pincers, a thunderbolt upon his anvil. He appears in 
some monuments with a long beard, dishevelled hair, his figure par- 
tially covered, and a small, round cap on his head, and holding in his 
hand the pincers and hammer. The Egyptians represented him under 
the figure of a monkey. 

Upon antique gems, he is commonly represented as an artist, occu- 
pied in his work-shop with forging arrows for Cupid. 






236 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



APHRODITE OR VENUS. 

Aphrodite, the perfection of creation, the Goddess of Love and 
Beauty, who presided over the propagation of every species of being, 
was, according to Homer, the daughter of Zeus and the blooming 
Dione, the youngest of the Titan sisters. 

Besides the numberless local divinities of this name, the first my- 
thologists acknowledged two original powers — the eldest a child of 
Uranos and last production of Heaven, and therefore of the Titan race, 
who bore her part in the productions of the universe ; and the young- 
est, the daughter of Zeus and Dione — the power arising from the vivi- 
fying, ethereal spirit, acting upon the plenitude of matter. According 
to Orpheus, the former brought forth the world and all it contains. 
" All things are of thee," says he ; " thou cementest the universe, thou 
swayest the three-fold Fates ; thou generatest whatever is in the heav- 
ens above, or the teeming earth below, or in the unfathomed depths of 
the sea." Euripides makes Aphrodite the daughter of Kronos and 
Eunomia ( Time and Good Order). 

The Grecian Aphrodite arose from the foam of the sea, was received 
by the Horse, who dressed her in divine attire, placed a golden crown 
upon her head, and adorned her neck, arms, and ears with golden or- 
naments. Zeus gave her the Graces for companions. Cupids attended 
upon her, and her chariot was drawn by doves. Every stroke in this 
picture breathes tenderness ; yet, the son of the goddess is armed with 
bow and arrows, indicating the power of his heavenly mother, the all- 
subduing deity. 

The dominion of Aphrodite over the heart was assisted and sup- 
ported by a famous girdle, called zone by the Greeks, and cestus by the 
Latins. This mysterious cincture gave beauty and grace to the wearer, 
even when deformed, and possessed the power of inspiring love. When 
Hera wished to inspire Zeus with this affection, she borrowed the magic 
girdle from Aphrodite. 

In this lovely goddess, those charms of grace and beauty are vene- 
rated which allude to matrimonial union ; but as the beneficent im- 
pulse of love, if not carefully guarded by reason and morality, may 
prove pernicious, bringing destruction on individuals, as well as war 
and mischief upon whole nations, the Goddess of Love is represented 
as a dreadful being. 

Having promised Paris the fairest wife on earth, because he ad- 



APHRODITE OR VENUS. 237 



judged the prize of beauty to her in preference to all the other god- 
desses, she incited him to deprive Menelaos, king of Sparta, of his 
lawful spouse, the god-like Helena — at the same time instilling into the 
bosom of this woman inconstancy and unfaithfulness. Thus the god- 
dess kept her word, not caring for the misery and ruin in which it 
might result ; and at all times, and in every danger, she proves a zeal- 
ous friend to Paris. During the siege of Troy, the offended Menelaos 
was about to kill Paris in single combat, when Aphrodite suddenly 
covered him with mighty darkness, and led him safely to his perfumed 
closet. 

Should this deity unite in herself the cold wisdom of Athena, or the 
awful earnestness of Themis, then indeed she would be incapable of 
the injustice of gratifying the wishes of one favorite at the expense of 
a whole city ; nay, of a whole country, laid waste on his account. But 
then she would likewise cease to be exclusively the goddess of Love, 
or a product of Fancy ; in whose person is represented the influence 
of the passion, indifferent to the consequences; not caring whether it 
leaves the traces of bloody wars, or ages exhibiting the bliss of peace, 
together with generations rejoicing in their own existence. 

In the productions of Fancy, it is the very want of completeness, the 
very appearance of defect, in the features of the person represented, by 
which alone imagination is enabled to create and people a whole world 
with supernatural beings, each distinguished by its own characteristics. 
The august Hera is destitute of placid loveliness, and is obliged to bor- 
row the girdle of Aphrodite ; the mighty god of war is deficient in re- 
flection and prudence, and his impetuosity is restrained by Athena. 

Aphrodite is possessed of the highest charms imaginable ; but 
Athena, destitute of female delicacy, is far superior to her in power. 
In one of the battles fought before Troy, in which the gods themselves 
at last challenged each other, Aphrodite being on the side of the Tro- 
jans, received from the strong hand of Athena (who assisted the 
Greeks) such a blow as made her knees sink under her. 

" Would to Heaven." exclaimed Athena, triumphantly, " that all 
the Trojans might equal the heroism and valor of Aphrodite !" (II. xii. 
428.) And at another time, Aphrodite, when wounded in her snow- 
white hand by the cold Diomedes, came to Olympos, complaining to 
her mother Dione of the daring of mortal men. Athena railed at her 
in terms like these : " Aphrodite, forsooth, was persuading a hand- 
somely dressed Grecian lady to follow along with her beloved Trojans , 



238 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

and, in caressing the fondling, she scratched her delicate hand with the 
golden clasp which fastened the robe of her favorite. " Then the father 
of the gods and men smiled, and said, " Warlike work, my love, is not 
thy business ; it is thy sweet care to prepare the joys of the wedding 
feast ; the care of war's wild tumult leave to Ares and Athena." (II. 
v. 42.) 

Thus the imagination of the ancients sportively trifles with the dei- 
ties whom she created after the image of man, yet always choosing such 
natural prototypes as are both grand and sublime. 

The worship of Aphrodite was universally established. Statues and 
temples were erected to her in every kingdom ; and the ancients de- 
lighted in 'paying homage to a divinity by whose influence alone man- 
kind was supposed to exist. She was chiefly worshipped at Cythera 
and Cyprus ; and fable says, that it was to the shores of the latter 
island that the waves of the sea gently carried the Goddess of Love 
as she arose from its foam. On this charming island, whole cities, to- 
gether with groves, temples, and altars, were consecrated to Aphrodite. 
Her favorite residence, however, was Paphos, where offerings and vows 
were presented in her temple, from every quarter of the earth. And 
from the veneration with which all nations here rendered homage to 
the Goddess of Beauty, she was called queen of Paphos. From two 
other places on Cyprus, Amathus and Idalion, she received the poeti- 
cal appellations, Idalia and Amathusia ; and from the island itself, she 
had the name of Cypria. 

From the remotest countries pilgrims came to Cnidos, there also to 
pay homage to the love-inspiring goddess, whom skilful art had endow- 
ed with human form, and thus rendered her visible to the eyes of men. 
There, the image of Aphrodite stood in an open temple, unveiled to the 
view of mortals. It was the Aphrodite of Praxiteles, a worthy object 
of admiration. 

The most ancient temple of Aphrodite in Greece, stood on the island 
of Cythera ; and the idea of the goddess herself was so intimately con- 
nected with the place of her residence, that both names became one. 
and in poetical language, the Goddess of Love was called Cytheraea. 

In the more ancient temples of this goddess in Cyprus, she was rep- 
resented under the form of a rude conical stone ; but the Grecian sculp- 
tors and painters. Praxiteles and Apelles, vied with each other in form- 
ing her image the ideal of female beauty and attraction. She appears 



APHRODITE OR VENUS. 239 

Bometimes rising out of the sea and wringing her locks : sometimes 
drawn in a conch by Tritons, or riding on some marine animal ; and 
sometimes drawn in a car by doves. The Venus de Medici remains to 
us a noble specimen of ancient art, and perception of the beautiful. 

Venus is frequently represented as the genius of indolence, lying in 
a languishing posture, and generally attended by Cupids who execute 
her orders. Possibly, some of these figures were originally meant for 
the goddess Desidia. Thus Venus appears in one of the finest colored 
pictures left us by the ancients. It is in the Barberini palace at Rome. 
The air of the head may be compared to the Venus of Cnidos, and the 
coloring with Titian's. Venus is described by Statius as in this pic 
ture. On an ancient sepulchral lamp she is still more indolent ; as 
not only herself, but the Cupids attending her are all sleeping. As 
this was in a sepulchre, it probably related to some lady of distinction 
who was buried there with her children. 

By the poets of the third age, Venus is represented as the goddess 
of jealousy, or the furious Venus. Flaccus and Statius, in their ac- 
count of the women of Lemnos killing their husbands at the instigation 
of Venus, described her as a Fury in black robes armed with a torch 
and a sword, and also with serpents, the attributes of the Furies. 

The birds sacred to Aphrodite were swans, doves, and sparrows 
Horace places her in a chariot drawn by swans, and Sappho gives her 
sparrows. In one of the odes ascribed to Anacreon, a dove announces 
herself as a present from the goddess to the bard. The bird called 
lynx or Fritillus, of which so much use was made in amatory magic, 
was also sacred to this goddess ; as was likewise the swallow, the herald 
of Spring, the season of love. Her favorite plants were the rose and 
the myrtle. 

The husband assigned to this goddess is the lame artist Hephaestos ; 
and she is fabled to have loved Anchises, the father of iEneias. 

Adonis, son of Cyniras and Myrrha, was famed for his beauty, and 
became a favorite of Venus. The tender goddess, not able to live with- 
out him. partly laid aside her softness for his sake, following him to the 
chase of the deer. She accompanied him like his faithful genius, warn- 
ing him to spare his precious life, whenever his daring spirit instigated 
him to pursue the tracks of fierce and dangerous beasts. But, disre- 
garding the entreaties and warnings of the goddess, he soon ran to 
destruction. Meeting with a fierce boar, he hurled his dart at him ; 



240 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

but, not being mortally wounded, the beast plunged his white tusks 
into the side of the handsome youth. He sank, the blood gushing in 
abundance from his wound, and when Aphrodite sought her beloved 
Adonis, she found him in the agony of death. 

In vain did she endeavor to recall him to life, and with bitter com- 
plaints accused the cruelty of his fate. Distracted, the goddess ran 
barefoot through the woods and lawns ; her delicate skin was pierced 
by thorns ; and her blood, dropping upon the rose, changed it from 
white to red. By degrees, her despair changed to softer mourning ; 
she sprinkled with nectar the ground that received the blood of her 
beloved Adonis, and gave him a kind of immortality by raising from 
it the flower Anemone, which, by its soon withering, expresses the 
brief period of life allotted to the beautiful son of Myrrha. 

A festival in honor of Adonis was annually celebrated at Byblos by 
the Phoenician women during two days ; the first of which was spent 
in grief and lamentation at his death, and the second in joy and triumph 
at the fabled resurrection of Adonis from the dead. During this fes- 
tival the priests of Babylon shaved their heads, in imitation of the 
priests of Isis in Egypt. 

In Greece, whither these rites were transplanted, the festival was 
prolonged to eight days. It is uncertain when the Adoneia was first 
celebrated in that country ; but we find Plato alluding to the gardens 
of Adonis, as pots and boxes of flowers used in them were called, and 
the ill fortune of the Athenian expedition to Sicily was in part ascribed 
to the circumstance of the fleet having sailed during that festival. 

In Greece it was celebrated in the same manner as in Phoenicia. 
On the first day the citizens put themselves in mourning, and coffins 
were placed at every door ; the statues of Yenus and Adonis were 
borne in procession, with the gardens of Adonis. At the conclusion 
of the ceremony, they were thrown into the sea or some river, where 
they soon perished, and thus became emblems of the premature death 
of Adonis, who, like a young plant, was cut off in the flcvver of life. 

This tale of Adonis is evidently an Eastern myth. His own name 
and those of his parents refer to that part of the world. He appears 
to be the same with the Thammuz mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel 
ch. viii., v. 1 4), 

Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate, 
While smooth Adonis from his native rock 



APHRODITE OR VENUS. 241 



Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood 
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: 

and to be a Phoenician personification of the sun, who, during a part 
of the year is absent, with the goddess of the under world, and during 
the remainder with Astarte the queen of Heaven. The legend says. 
that Aphrodite committed Adonis to the care of Persephone, who after- 
wards refused to part with him ; the matter being referred to Zeus, he 
decreed that Adonis should have one-third of the year to himself, be 
another third with Aphrodite, and the remaining third with Perse- 
phone. 

Adonis was an oriental title of the sun signifying Lord ; and the 
loss of this mighty lord was lamented in all countries where the Assy- 
rian and the Phoenician traditions were received ; and his return to 
impregnate the world with his genial vigor, was welcomed with the 
highest demonstrations of joy. The boar supposed to have killed him, 
was the emblem of winter; during which, the productive powers of 
nature being suspended, Aphrodite, who went hand in hand with spring, 
was said to lament the loss of Adonis until he was again restored to 
life ; hence the Syrian and Argive women annually mourned his death. 
and celebrated his renovation to life. The mysteries of Adonis and 
Aphrodite, at Byblos in Syria, were held in similar estimation with 
those of Demeter and Dionysos at Eleusis, and of Isis and Osiris in 
Egypt. 

There is none of the Olympians of whom the foreign origin is so 
probable as that of Aphrodite. She is generally regarded as being the 
same with the Astarte of the Phoenicians. There can be little doubt 
of the identification of Astarte with the Grecian Aphrodite, for the 
tale of Adonis sufficiently proves it : and that this took place at a very 
early period, is evinced by Homer's so frequently giving Aphrodite the 
name of Cypris. Still we look on Aphrodite to be, as her name seems 
to denote, an originally Grecian deity ; at first, probably, merely cos- 
mogonic, but gradually adopted into the system of the Olympians, and 
endowed with some of the attributes of Hera (who was also identified 
with Astarte). and thus became the patroness of marriage. It was 
probably on account of her being esteemed the same with Astarte, the 
moon goddess and queen of Heaven, that Aphrodite was so frequently 
styled the heavenly (Urania) It is very important to observe that 
she was so named at her temple in Cithera, which was regarded as th<? 

16 



242 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

holiest and most ancient of her fanes in Greece. Her antique wooden 
statue in this temple was armed ; as it was also in Corinth and Sparta. 
In this last city, she was styled Urania, and her worship there was 
eminently Asiatic in character. 

HERMES OH MERCURY. 

While Hera was sleeping, Zeus went to see Maia, the graceful 
daughter of Atlas, in a shady cave ; and to this secret visit Hermes is 
said to have owed his existence. Being born in the morning, he at 
noon played on the lute invented by himself, and in the evening he 
stole Apollo's oxen. 

The lute was invented by him in the following manner. Secretly 
leaving his cradle at noon, on the first day of his life, and stepping 
over the threshold, he met a tortoise, whose shell appeared to him a 
fit instrument for giving musical tones when furnished with strings 
■'- Now thou art dumb," said he, " but after thy death, thy song will be 
heard." Thus addressing the animal, he immediately killed it, and 
furnished the shell with seven concordant strings, which he touched 
with a small stick. As soon as he had tuned the newly-invented 
instrument with skilful ear, he could not forbear singing to it, and 
chanted forth the praise of every thing that met his eye, even the tri- 
pods and vessels in his mother's house ; till at last, his song, passing 
into a higher strain, found a worthier subject, in the love of Zeus and 
Maia, his divine parents. 

When evening came on, and the sun had descended into the 
ocean, Hermes found himself upon the Pierian mountains, where the 
herds of the immortal gods were feeding: From these he stole fifty 
oxen belonging to Apollo, and devising many a crafty trick to avoid 
detection, as he drove them onward through valleys and over moun- 
tains, he would have escaped discovery but for an old man, who, dig- 
ging in the field, saw the boy with the oxen, and afterwards betrayed 
him to Apollo. On the shores of the river Alpheus, Hermes killed 
two of the stolen oxen, making a sacrifice of them to himself. Having 
done this, he carefully extinguished the fire, hid the ashes in the 
ground, and threw the remainder of the killed animals into the river, 
together with the shoes he had made of twigs and put upon the feet 
of the oxen, in order to conceal their tracks, or render them undis- 
cernible. All this he performed by moonlight. Before the break of 
day he gently stole back into his mother's dwelling, and lay down 



HERMES OR MERCURY. 243 



again in his cradle, pulling the clothes around him, and holding the 
lute, his dearest plaything, in his hand. 

Apollo, angry at the theft committed on his oxen, appeared to call 
Hermes to account, and to recover his property. The thief feigned a 
deep sleep, having the lute lying under his arm. Apollo threatened 
to precipitate him into Tartaros, if he would not immediately point out 
the place where the oxen were hidden. Then the cunning boy, twin- 
kling his eyes, answered him, " How cruelly, son of Leto, dost thou 
address a little boy who was not born until yesterday, and who cares 
for things very different from driving oxen ; who is longing for sweet 
slumber and his mother's breast, and whose feet are too tender and 
feeble to tread long and rough paths. Nay, I will swear by Zeus, my 
father's head, that neither I myself have stolen the oxen, nor do I 
know who committed the deed." 

Upon this, it was agreed between them, that both should appear 
before the father of the gods on Olympos, that he might reconcile their 
difference. Apollo stated his complaint, while Hermes stood by in his 
swathing-clothes, in order to refute the charge by the appearance of 
his tender age. " Have I then indeed," said he, " the appearance of a 
strong man, able to drive away oxen ? Certainly, father, thou shalt 
hear nothing but the truth from me. Whilst the oxen were stolen, I 
was lying in sweet slumber, and did not pass the threshold of my 
mother's dwelling. Thou knowest thyself, too, that I am innocent: 
yet I am ready to protest my innocence with a solemn oath, and I 
shall one day reward the cruel word of that false one. But thou, 
father, be the protector of the younger." Thus spoke Hermes, with 
twinkling eyes, and Zeus smiled at the boy because he was prudent 
enough to deny so finely the charge brought against him. But at the 
same time he commanded him to tell where the oxen were hidden, and 
when Hermes obeyed the injunction, accompanying Apollo to the hid- 
ing-place, a reconciliation took place between them, of which the 
invented lute was the pledge. 

For when the sweet sound of the instrument had touched the ear 
of the god of harmony, he was enraptured ; and caressing the inventor, 
"Truly," said he, "this invention is worth fifty oxen." Upon this. 
Hermes made him a present of the lute, and Apollo became trans- 
ported with joy, at the thought of possessing so inestimate a treasure. 
In order, however, to secure it to himself, he requested Hermes to 
swear by the Styx never to steal the sweetly-sounding lute from its 



^ 



244 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

present possessor. In return for his lute, Apollo gave him the golden 
wand, which had the power of settling all differences ; and these two, 
now closely united, ascended hand in hand to Olympos. It was art 
that wove the band that united them, and Zeus rejoiced in the 
concord 

Hermes became afterwards the messenger of the immortals. He is 
the swift, the rapidly moving power among the celestials, who, as if 
firmly established in their own majesty, send the fleet, inventive idea 
from heaven to earth, re-admitting it into their divine council as 
soon as its task is accomplished. 

His archetype is speech. Speech, the tender breath of air must, as 
it were, steal into the effective connection of things, in order to make 
up by thought and prudence for the deficiency of power and strength. 
The word of speech is winged, because it is only to be heard when 
accompanied by the swift breath of the lungs, and flies like a bird let 
loose, that cannot be recalled. For this reason, the beautiful expres- 
sion of the ancients, " The word wants its wings." 

According to a poetical representation, a golden chain hangs down 
from his mouth, reaching from Olympos to the listening ears of the 
dwellers on the earth, who, in this manner, are persuaded by the irre- 
sistible charms of the sweet melody that flows from his lips. 

Irresistible also is his art to settle differences, to reconcile enemies— 
in short, to dissolve all dissonant objects in harmonious union. Once, 
in his boyhood, he found two serpents in his way engaged in furious 
strife ; he struck between them with his golden wand, and behold ! 
the reptiles instantly forget their fury, and twine themselves in gentle 
coil round the wand, at the top of which their heads meet in eternal 
concord. There is no emblem to be found more expressive of recon- 
ciliation and peace, as well as harmonious connection of what is 
opposed and contending, than this wand surrounded with coiling ser- 
pents, which, in the hand of the divine herald, thenceforward consti- 
tuted a token of his authority. 

Nothing is more charming and attractive in the fictions of the 
ancients, than their description of the rapid development of divine 
power in these supernatural beings — a power, which, as if having 
existed long ago, and being only new born in a particular form, does 
not suffer itself to be long restrained by swathing-clothes and cradle. 

In this light, airy representation, the imagination of the ancients 
embodied the ideas of quick, inventive faculty, and cunning activity. 



HERMES OR MERCURY. 245 

which displayed itself alike in deceptive persuasion, and easily accom- 
plished sportive theft, at which even the pilfered himself, hearing the 
adventurous roguishness, was forced to smile. Jocularity and cun- 
ning being here clothed with divinity and immortality, present a new 
figure in the great picture of the divine assembly ; fitter, upon the 
whole, to charm our eyes by its variety of composition and splendid 
colors, than to improve our hearts by its moral exhibitions. 

In the human breast, the voice of an invisible, supernatural power 
speaks intelligibly, bidding man lift up his eyes from the earth to a 
higher world. The ancients, too, heard this voice ; but misapprehend- 
ing it, they formed to themselves a supernatural world, after the pat- 
tern which nature and human life presented to them. Therefore, 
nothing appeared to them mean or unholy, that rose from the general, 
uncreating influence of nature, and contained, although noxious in 
itself, the germ of beauty or utility. 

Fancy assigns to her divine beings no bounds with regard to actions ; 
on the contrary, she gives to the inward impulse the fullest scope ; suf- 
fering them to stray even to the extreme limits of mischief, because in 
her fictions the great contrasts, together with the huge masses of light 
and shade, which otherwise we perceive merely as scattered and single, 
are concentrated in a small compass, and because every one of her be- 
ings comprises, as it were, in its own person, the substance of all things 
considered from some sublime point of view. 

In this respect, the fiction of Hermes is one of the most beautiful 
and comprehensive. He is the swift herald of the immortals ; the god 
of speech ; the tutelary genius of the roads ; in him the winged word is 
renewed when repeated from his lips, in delivering the commands of 
the gods ; with his golden wand he leads the dead to the world of shad- 
ows ; he is likewise the author of all prudent and cunning designs, 
plots, and artifices ; the patron of thieves, the teacher of men in the 
art of wrestling, or of conquering strength by agility, and the president 
over trade and gain. 

As messenger of Zeus, he was intrusted with all his secrets ; and as 
the ambassador and plenipotentiary of the Gods, was concerned in all 
alliances and treaties. In the wars of the giants, he showed himself 
brave, spirited, and active. He delivered Ares from his long confine- 
ment which he suffered from the superior powers of the Aloeids ; he 
purified the Danaides from the murder of their husbands ; he tied Ixion 
to his wheel in the infernal regions ; he destroyed the hundred-eyed 



246 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Argos ; lie sold Heracles to Omphale, queen of Lydia ; he conducted 
Priamos to the tent of Achilleus to redeem the body of his son Hector : 
and he carried the infant Dionysos to the nymphs of Nysa. He gavt 
many proofs of his thievish propensity, and increased his fame by 
robbing Poseidon of his trident, Aphrodite of her girdle, Ares of his 
sword, Zeus of his sceptre, and Heph'aestos of his mechanical instru- 
ments. 

In the war of gods, Hermes is opposed to Leto, but declines the com- 
bat on the plea of the impolicy of making an enemy of one of the con- 
sorts of Zeus ; at the same time, courtier-like, telling her that if she 
pleases, she may boast of having vanquished him by main strength. 
When the corse of Hector was exposed by Achilleus, the gods, pitying 
the fate of the hero, urged Hermes to steal it away. On king Pria- 
mos' setting forth to ransom the body of his son, Zeus desires Hermes 
to accompany him, reminding him of his fondness for associating with 
mankind. The god obeys his sire ; puts on his immortal, golden sand- 
als, which bear him over the water and the extensive earth like the 
blasts of the wind ; and takes " his rod, with which he lays asleep the 
eyes of what men he will, and wakes again the sleepers. " He accompa- 
nies the aged monarch in the form of a Grecian youth, telling him that 
he is the son of a wealthy man named Polyctor {much possessing). 

In the Odyssey, Hermes takes the place of Iris, who does not appear 
at all in this poem, and becomes the messenger of Zeus. He still re- 
tains his character of friend to man, and comes unsent to point out to 
Odysseus the herb Moly : which will enable him to escape the enchant- 
ments of Circe. Eumseos, the swineherd, makes an offering to Hermes 
and the nymphs. At the commencement of the spurious twenty-fourth 
book, Hermes appears in his character of conveyer of souls to the realms 
of Hades. 

Mythologists are pretty well agreed in recognizing a telluric power 
in the Hermes of the Pelasgian system. The simplest derivation of 
his name is from a Greek word, signifying earth, and by the name of 
his mother, Maia, is probably meant Mother Earth. 

He seems to have been the deity of productiveness in general ; but 
he came gradually to be regarded as presiding more particularly over 
flocks and herds. From this last view some of his Hellenic attributes 
may be simply deduced. Thus the god of shepherds was naturally re- 
garded as the inventor of music ; the lyre is ascribed to Hermes, as the 
pipes are to Pan, music having always been a recreation of shepherds 



HERMES OR MERCURY. 



24? 



in the warm regions of the south. In like manner, as the shepherd 
lads amuse themselves with wrestling and other feats of strength and 
activity, their tutelar god easily became the president of the palastra. 
So also trade, having consisted chiefly in the exchange of cattle, Her- 
mes, the herdsman's god, was held to be the god of commerce ; and 
the skill and eloquence employed in commercial dealings, made him to 
be the god of eloquence, artifice, and ingenuity, and even of cheating. 
As herdsmen are the best guides in the country, it may be thence that 
Hermes was thought to protect wayfarers, and thence to be a protector 
in general. For this cause it may have been, that godsends or treas- 
ure-trove were ascribed to him. 

The rural deity, when thus become active, sly and eloquent, was well 
adapted for the office which was assigned him of agent and messenger 
of the gods, to whom we also find him officiating as cup-bearer. As a 
being whose operations extended into the interior of the earth, Hermes 
would seem to have been in some points of view identified with Hades 
In Pindar, this latter deity himself performs the office generally as- 
signed to Hermes, that of conducting the departed to Erebos. Possi- 
bly it may have been on this account, that Solon directed the Atheni 
ans to swear by Zeus, Poseidon, and Hermes. 

The Grecian spirit complete- 
ly modified the Egyptian Her- 
mes, to produce the Hermes or 
Mercury of the Grecian my- 
thology ; where he is quite a 
different being. In Egypt he 
presides over the sciences, 
writing, medicine, and astron- 
omy, and composes many di- 
vine works, containing the ele- 
ments of these several depart- 
ments of knowledge ; in Greece 
he is the god of shepherds and 
merchandise. The interpreter 
of the gods in Egypt, he be- 
comes in Greece only their 
messenger ; and it is by virtue 
of this latter title that he preserves his wings, which were among the 
Egyptians merely an astronomical symboL 




248 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

The god is usually represented with a chlamys^ his petasus or winged 
cap, and his talaria or winged sandals, and the caduceus or wand 
presented to him by Apollo, which had the power of settling all differ- 
ences, of putting any one to sleep, and of waking them again, and also 
of bringing souls out of Hell. The petasus and talaria were gifts from 
Zeus. 

The ancient statues of Hermes were merely wooden posts with a rude 
head and pointed beard carved on them. They were what is termed 
ithyphallic, and were set up on the roads and foot-paths, also in the 
fields and gardens. From this representation he became with the Ro- 
mans the god Terminus ; but when they were made acquainted with 
the twelve great deities of the Athenians, they adopted the Grecian 
Hermes under the name of Mercurius. In honor of this deity, the 
Romans celebrated an annual festival in a temple near the Circus Max- 
imus, when sacrifices and prayers were offered to him. 

An ancient gem exhibits the following accurate representation of 
Mercury : As god of the roads, he stands before an altar, over which 
rises an antique milestone, which he touches with his wand. Upon the 
altar lies a staff, as an intimation of travellers dedicating their walking 
staves to Mercury, after having accomplished a journey. As a sign of 
the safety of the roads, an olive branch is entwined around the stone. 
The god bears on his head the winged cap ; as he is standing, the 
winged sandals are not fastened to his feet. 



The Council of Jupiter, the supreme divinity, was composed of six 
gods, namely, Jupiter, Neptune, Mercury, Apollo, Mars, and Yulcan ; 
and six goddesses : Juno, Ceres, Yesta, Minerva, Diana, and Yenus. 
To this assembly no other deities were admitted. 

As soon as fiction descends from Heaven to Earth, divine beings be- 
come more numerous. Imagination discovers life in fountains, groves, 
and hills ; — and according to her pleasure, ascribes to this life corpore- 
al form. In this manner all nature becomes sacred : deity fills the 
whole, and the whole is deity, revealed only in various forms. The 
ancients not only deified the virtues, but distempers, storms, and pas- 
sions, and worshipped them that they might be saved from all harm. 

This practice of personifying natural and moral qualities, seems to 
have been coeval with Grecian poetry and religion. It was not, how- 
ever, by any means peculiar to Greece : it will probably be found wher- 
ever poetry exists. But it was only in ancient Greece and Italy, that 



THE COUNCIL OF JUPITER. 



249 



these personifications were made objects of worship, and regarded as 
having a real and personal existence. 

The Grenii or Dsemons were not considered as equal to the gods, but 
as superior to mortals. The four natures, Grods, Genii, Heroes and 
Men were first distinguished by Hesiod. 




PART THIRD. 



GENII AND INFERIOR DEITIE& 



GENII AND INFERIOR DEITIES 



According to the ideas of the ancients, man was intimately connected 
with the Deity by means of the genii or tutelary beings. The highest 
divinity is multiplied, as it were, in those beings, who, like guard- 
ian angels, lead by the hand every individual mortal through life, 
from the hour of his birth to that of his death. In this sense it was. 
that man swore by his Jupiter, and woman by her Juno, speaking of 
their own genius, or tutelary deity. 

On their birthdays, the ancients presented offerings of wine, incense, 
and garlands of flowers, to their respective genii, who were represented 
in the form of handsome youths, having their heads crowned with flow- 
ers. Thus man, following the dictates of his heart, venerated some- 
thing higher and more divine than he could find in his own limited 
individuality, and brought to t: this great unknown of himself" offer- 
ings as a god ; thus compensating by veneration for the indistinct 
knowledge of his divine origin. 

It was customary among the Romans to implore persons by their 
genius, as the orientals do by their souls : and in Latin writers it is 
not always easy to distinguish a man's genius from himself. The dis- 
tinct worship of the Genii continued down to the demise of paganism, 
for we find it noticed in the Theodosian code. 

The worship of the Genius was a remarkable part of the religion of 
the Romans ; they having derived it from the Tuscans, in whose sys- 
tem it formed a prominent feature. The word Genius is evidently a 
Latin translation of a Tuscan term, signifying Generator, and the Ge- 
nius was therefore viewed as a deity who had the power of producing. 
In the Tuscan system he was the son of the gods, and the parent of 
men ; according to the ancient Italian doctrine, all souls proceeded 



254 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

from Jupiter, and returned to him after death ; therefore the Genius 
Jovialis was viewed as the great agent in giving life, and uniting the 
soul to the body. 

When Ceres and Pallas bless the growth and animals of the fields, 
and thereby the house, so cares the G-enius Jovialis for the continuance 
and bloom of the family itself. Through him is Jupiter an eternal, 
inexhaustible giver of life to the changing generation of man. 

The Genii of the Romans are frequently confounded with the Manes, 
Lares and Penates ; and they have indeed one great feature in com- 
mon, viz., that of protecting mortals. There is, however, this essential 
difference : the genii are the powers that produce life, and accompany 
man through it as his second or spiritual self, and the other powers 
have no influence till life, the work of the genii, has commenced. Nei- 
ther were they confined to man, but every living thing, animal as well 
as man, and also every place, had its genius, or protecting spirit. 

Horace, in speaking of the Genius, calls him " changeable of coun- 
tenance, white and black :" and in the well-known appearance of his 
evil genius to Brutus, the spirit was black, which would seem to inti- 
mate that a man had two Genii, a good and an evil one. 

This does not appear to have been the Italian belief, though perhaps 
such a notion prevailed in Greece ; for the philosopher Empedocles 
said, that two Moirse receive us at our birth, and obtain authority 
over us. 

The whole body of the Roman people also had its genius, who is often 
represented on the coins of Hadrian and Trajan. He was worshipped 
on sad, as well as on joyous occasions, as for instance at the beginning 
of the second year of the Hannibalian war. 

When a local genius made himself visible, he appeared in the form 
of a serpent, that is, the symbol of renovation, or of new life. In 
works of art, the genii are usually represented as winged beings ; and 
on Roman monuments, a genius generally appears as a youth dressed 
in a toga, with a patera or cornucopia in his hand, and having his head 
covered. The genius of a place is represented in the form of a serpent 
eating fruit placed before him. 

The Greeks called their genii, daemons, and appear to have believed 
in them from the earliest times, though they are not menUoned by Ho- 
mer. Hesiod speaks of them as being thirty thousand in number, and 
says that they dwelt on earth, invisible to mortals, as the ministers of 



GENII AND INFERIOR DEITIES. 255 



Zeus and the guardians of man and justice. He also considers them 
as the souls of righteous men who lived in the golden age. Upon this 
idea the Greek philosophers developed a complete theory of daemons. 
Thus we read in Plato, that daemons are assigned to men at the mo- 
ment of their birth, accompany them through life, and after death, con- 
duct their souls to Hades * Pindar also speaks of the spirit that 
watches over the fate of man from the hour of his birth, which appears 
to be the same as the genius of the Romans — the protecting spirit, 
analogous to the guardian angels invoked by the church of Rome. 

Daemons are further described as the ministers and companions of the 
gods, who bear the prayers of men to them, and the gifts of the gods to 
men, and accordingly float in immense numbers in the space between 
heaven and earth. Daemons who were exclusively the ministers of 
the gods, seem to have constituted a distinct class. The Corybantes, 
Dactyls, and Cabeiri, are called the ministering daemons of the great 
gods : Gigon, Tychon, and Ortharges, are the daemons of Aphrodite ; 
and Hadreus the daemon of Demeter. 

The Penates, or guardians of private families, who are also derived 
from the Etruscans, appear to have formed an especial class of deities 
among the Romans. The dii penates are those who are worshipped in 
the interior of the house. They were gods from whom blessings, cher 
ishing, and prosperity were expected, as the name declares. There is 
no reason to suppose that the Penates were a class of gods distinctly 
divided from the others ; but different gods and daemons of different 
orders are honored in different houses. Therefore the great uncer- 
tainty and variety in the assertions of the ancients as to who the Pe- 
nates were. 

According to the Etruscans, they were divided into four classes : 
Penates of Jupiter, Penates of Neptune, those of the nether gods, and 
those of mortal men. They considered the daemons who add to the 
possessions of families, as in part the souls of the dead, in part beings 
of the earth and lower world, of the water and the heavens ; the fourth 
class comprised the Genii. 

Among the various deities called Lares, are human souls, as among 
the Penates. Certain rites are described by which human souls are 



* Hades anciently signified the grave, or place of the dead in general. All therefore 
that die, must go to Hades. 



256 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

changed to gods called animals, because they arise from souls. These 
are Penates and way-gods. These rites are the same as those conse 
crated to the deities of the nether world, which were principally 
Etruscan ; only the name, and perhaps certain usages, were borrowed 
from Greece by which souls were redeemed and conjured out of the 
lower world, and thereby became gods. This is the doctrine of the 
genii. A genius is present at birth ; — his power operates in the life of 
the mortal whom the gods favor, and also after death ; and of the dead 
he becomes again the genius. Yet, these elevated and deified souls 
do not become gods of every sort, but first Penates. The old Latins 
called the soul of man, as soon as it had left the body, Lemur ; and a 
Lemur, who retained an interest in posterity, and ruled the house 
with mild and peaceful disposition, Lar Familiaris. Those who, for a 
punishment, wandered about as powerless forms, empty bugbears to 
the good, and the torment of the bad. were Larva. But when the des- 
tiny of the man is uncertain, the term Manes dii is employed, and to 
the Manes was assigned a subterranean place of abode. There can be 
little doubt that Jupiter and Juno were worshipped as Penates. Yesta, 
also, is reckoned among them ; for each hearth, being the symbol of do- 
mestic union, had its Yesta. The public Penates of the city of Rome 
had a chapel near the centre of the city, in a place called Sub Velia ; 
the private had their place at the domestic hearth, which, as well as 
the table, was sacred to them. Every meal taken in the house resem- 
bled a sacrifice to the Penates. 

After every absence from the hearth, the Penates were saluted like 
the living inhabitants of the house. Whoever went abroad, prayed to 
the Penates and Lares for a happy return ; and when he came back, he 
hung up his armor and staff by the side of their images. No event, 
whether sad or joyful, occurred in the family, without offering prayers 
to the Lares and Penates. 

The Lares or domestic deities, were generally two in number, who liad 
their abodes on the domestic hearth. They were represented as youths 
with hats on their heads, travelling staves in their hands, and dogs at 
their sides. Lamps, the symbol of vigilance, were consecrated to them ; 
they were crowned with flowerets, and received offerings of food, which 
was prepared upon the hearth. Again, they are dressed in short 
habits, to show their readiness to serve, and hold a kind of cornucopia 
as a signal of hospitality and good house-keeping. Being witness of 



LARES. 



257 



domestic happiness or misfortune, they hal- 
lowed the every-day occurrences of life by 
their presence, rendering every house, as 
it were, a sacred temple. 

There are various classes of Lares, such 
as Lares Urbani, to preside over the cities ; 
Familiares, over houses ; Ruslici, over the 
country ; Marini. over the sea ; Viales, over 
the roads, etc. 

If we regard the nature of Lares and 
Penates, we shall readily perceive why the 
former have a higher rank assigned them in 
the hierarchy of the genii than the latter. 
The Penates were originally gods — the 
powers of nature personified — powers whose 
wonderful and mysterious action produces 
and upholds whatever is necessary to life, 
as well as to the common good and pros- 
perity of families and individuals ; in fine, 
whatever the human species cannot bestow 
upon itself. 

The case is quite different with the La- 
res ; they were originally human beings, 
who had lived upon earth, and who, becom- 
ing pure spirits after death, loved still to hover round the dwellings 
they had formerly inhabited, watching over their safety, and guarding 
them from evil. Having lived as mortals, they were familiar with the 
dangers that surround man, and knew what assistance was required by 
those whose situation in every respect was once their own. They were 
therefore supposed to avert danger from without, while the Penates, 
residing in the interior of the dwelling, pour forth benefits upon its 
inmates with bountiful hands. 

The place in which the Lares were worshipped was called the La- 
rarium — a sort of domestic chapel in the Atrium, where were also to be 
seen the images and busts of the family ancestors. In the sacrifices 
offered to them, the first-fruits of every year, with wine and incense, 
were brought to their altars ; and their images were adorned with 
chaplets and garlands. The rich had often two Lararia, one large and 
one. small; and also "Masters of the Lares" and "Decurios of the 

17 




258 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Lares ;" namely, slaves specially charged with the care of these do- 
mestic chapels and images of their divinities. The common altar, on 
which sacrifices were offered to the Lares, was the domestic hearth ; 
and in all family repasts, the first thing done was to cast a portion of 
the viands into the fire that burned on the hearth in honor of the Lares 

Certain public festivals were also celebrated in honor of the Lares, 
called Lararia and Compitalia. The period for their celebration fell 
in the month of December, a little after the Saturnalia. On this occa- 
sion the Lares were worshipped as propitious deities ; therefore these 
festivities were gay and joyful. The Compitalia, dedicated to the La- 
res Compitales. were celebrated in the open air : the day of their cele- 
bration was not fixed. They were introduced at Rome by Servius 
Tuilius. who left to the Senate the care of determining the period when 
they should be held. 

In early times, children were immolated to the goddess Mania, who, 
according to some, was the mother of the Lares, in order to propitiate her 
favor for the protection of the family. This barbarous rite was subse- 
quently abolished, and little balls of wool were hung up at the gates of 
dwellings, instead of human offerings. After the expulsion of the 
Tarquins, Junius Brutus introduced a new form of sacrifice, by virtue 
of which, heads of garlics and poppies were offered up in place of hu- 
man heads, in accordance with the oracle of Apollo. During these 
festivals, every family brought a cake for an offering ; slaves enjoyed a 
perfect equality with their masters, as on the Saturnalia ; and slaves, 
instead of freemen, assisted the priests in the sacrifices offered on this 
occasion to the tutelary genii of the ways. 

In case of death in a family, a sacrifice of sheep was offered to the 
family Lares In the form of marriage, called coemtio, the bride 
always threw a piece of money upon the hearth to the Lares of her 
family, and deposited another in the neighboring cross-road> in order 
to obtain admission, as it were, into the dwelling of her husband. 
Young persons, after their fifteenth year, consecrated to the Lares the 
bulla* which they had worn from infancy. Soldiers, when their time 



* The bulla was made of metal, and so called from its resemblance in form to a bubble 
floating upon the water. It was suspended round the neck of a child as a token of 
paternal affection, and a sign of high birth ; as it was given to infants, it sometime* 
served to recognize a lost child. Probably it contained amulets. 

Instead of the bulla of gold, the children of inferior rank wore one made of leather. 



NYMPHS OR NYMPHS. 250 






of service was ended, dedicated to these powerful genii the arms with 
which they had fought the battles of their country. Captives and 
slaves, restored to freedom, consecrated to the Lares the fetters from 
which they had just been freed. Before undertaking a journey, or 
after a successful return, homage was paid t>o these deities, when their 
protection was implored, or thanks were rendered for their guardian 
care. The new master of a house crowned the Lares, in order to render 
them propitious ; a custom which was most universal, and perpetuated 
to the latest times. 

As regards the forms under which the Lares were represented, it 
may be observed that it differed slightly from that of the Penates. 
Thus, on the coins of the Csesian family, they are represented as two 
young men, seated, their heads covered with helmets, and holding 
spears in their hands, while a dog watches at their feet. Sometimes 
the heads of the Lares are represented as covered with the skin of a 
dog, and sometimes it forms their mantle. At other times, we find the 
Lares resembling naked children, with the bulla hanging from the 
neck, and always accompanied by the attribute of the dog. 

NYMPEL3E OR NYMPHS. 

The imagination of the ancients, fond of connecting something divine 
with objects that are strong and lasting, and that outlive the genera- 
tions of men, as the firmly-rooted mountain, the overflowing spring, 
and the solid oak, attributed to hills and fountains, to forests, and even 
to single trees, immortal souls ; for in this light may those beings be 
considered, who, under the name of Nymphs, were thought to animate 
them. 

The Oread roams on the mountains, pursuing with her sisters, in 
the retinue of Diana, the track of the deer ; and, like the unyielding 
deity whom she follows, closes her heart to every tender affection. 

At the lonely hour of noon, the Naiad sat with her water pitcher at 
her spring, sending forth from it the warbling brooks. Although less 
cruel than their mountain-sisters, the caresses of the Naiades proved 
dangerous. They embraced handsome Hylas, the favorite of Hercules, 
when he was sent for water, and drew him down into the fountain. 

The sacred gloom of the forest was the abode of the Dryades, while 
the Hamadryad lived within her own single tree, with which she was 
born, and with which she died. Whoever therefore spared a tree laid 
the' Nymph who dwelt in it under an obligation for life. 



*J60 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



The Aurae, or Sylphs, Nymphs of the air, a species of sportive, happy 
beings, and well-wishers to mankind, were winged and represented as 
flying. 

In this manner inanimate nature itself became to man an object of 
sympathetic benevolence. 

In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, we find the following descrip' 
tion of the Nymphs. Aphrodite, as the mother of iEneias, in allusion 
to his birth, says to Anchises. 

But him, when first he sees the sun's clear light, 

The nymphs shall rear, the mountain-haunting nymphs, 

Deep bosom'd, who on this mountain great 

And holy dwell, who neither goddesses 

Nor women are. Their life is long ; they eat 

Ambrosial food ; and with the deathless, frame 

The beauteous dance. With them in the recess 

Of lovely caves, well-spying Argos-slayer 

And the Sileni mix in love. Straight pines 

Or oaks high-headed, sprung with them upon 

The earth, men feeding, soon as they are born ; 

Trees fair and flourishing ; on the high hills. 

Lofty they stand ; the Deathless, sacred grove 

Men call them, and with iron never cut. 

But when the Fate of death is drawing near, 

First wither on the earth the beauteous trees, 

The bark around them wastes, the branches fall, 

And the nymph's soul, at the same moment leaves 

The sun's fair light. 



SILENOS. 

According to the Homerid, Hermes and 
the Silens mingle in love with the Nymphs 
in pleasing caverns, and Pindar calls Silenos 
the Naiad's husband. Socrates, on account 
of his wisdom, his baldness, and his flat nose, 
compared himself to the Silens born of the 
divine Naiades. Others said that Silenos was 
a son of Earth, and sprung from the blood, 
drops of Uranos : Marsyas is also called a 
Silen. 

Like the sea-gods, Silenos was noted for 
wisdom ; and it would therefore appear that a Silen was simply a river- 
god ; and the name probably comes from the Greek verb, signifying U 




PRIAPOS. 261 



roll, expressive of the motion of the streams. The connection between 
Silenos, Bacchos, and the Naiades, thus becomes easy of explanation, 
all being deities relating to moisture. 

Silenos was represented as old, bald, and flat-nosed, riding on a broad- 
backed ass, usually intoxicated, and carrying his can {cantharus) ) or 
tottering along, supported by his staff of fennel (ferula). 

PRIAPOS. 

Priapos, the emblem of fecundity, and fabled to have been the son 
of Bacchos and Aphrodite, was introduced late into the Grecian my- 
thology. He was a rural deity, worshipped by the people of Lampsacus, 
a city on the Hellespont famous for its vineyards. 

Priapos was not. as is supposed from the employment usually assigned 
him by the Romans after they adopted his worship — merely the god 
of gardens, but of fruitfulness in general. 

" This god," says Pausanias, " is honored elsewhere by those who 
keep sheep and goats, or stocks of bees ; but the Lampsacenes, regarded 
him more than any of the gods, calling him the son of Dionysos and 
Aphrodite." In Theocritus the shepherds placed his statue with those 
of the nymphs at a shady fountain, and a shepherd prays to him, prom- 
ising sacrifices if he will free him from love ; and, by Virgil, bees are 
placed under his care. Fishermen also made offerings to him as the 
deity presiding over fisheries ; and in the Anthology, Priapos (of-thc- 
Heaven) is introduced, giving a pleasing description of the spring, and 
inviting the mariners to put to sea. The Priaps are enumerated by 
Moschus among the rural gods : 

And Satyrs wailed and sable-cloaked Priaps; 
And Pans sighed after the sweet melody. 

Like the other rural gods, Priapos is of a ruddy complexion. His 
cloak is filled with all kinds of fruit ; he has a scythe in his hand, and 
usually a horn of plenty. Sometimes his statue was placed in gardens, 
crowned with a wreath of herbs and bearing a crooked knife in his 
hand, 



262 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



SATYRS. 

The forest, with its shades and deep recesses, is the scene also of 
those wanton beings, called Satyrs, whose human shape is disfigured 
by the horns and feet of a goat. They are, as it were, the middle link, 
which in nature's great chain connects the brute creation with the 
human world. 

In these beings the slender feet of a goat is in a burlesque manner 
joined to a human form ; and a similar contrast exhibits youthful 
wantonness and careless levity, blended with the higher spirit that 
dwells within them. Although mortal, they are superior to the cares 
and sorrows of mortal life. 

Belief in the existence of these beings, as well as others of the same 
kind, must necessarily have been perpetuated from the idea that no 
one was permitted to behold a nymph or a satyr unpunished. Thus, 
instead of endeavoring to ascertain the truth or falsehood of their ex- 
istence, every one shunned the sight of them, avoiding such places as 
they were reported to have chosen for their haunts. It was the inspired 
poet alone, who, amid lonely rocks, beheld in the train of Bacchos, 
nymphs and satyrs, listening to the instruction of the god, and goat- 
footed satyrs with erect and pointed ears. In the Greek mythology 
they were inseparably connected with the worship of Bacchos, and 
represent the luxuriant, vital powers of nature 

In the Satyrs, art has attempted to represent human form bordering 
as nearly as possible on brutal shape. A Satyr, exhibited upon an an- 
tique gem, as he is contending with a he-goat, and pushing him, is 
scarcely distinguished from that animal, except by his body and arms ; 
the goat form being extended even to the face, which,, although human, 
betrays the nature of the brute. 

These comic Nymphs, Genii, and Cupids produce an agreeable con- 
trast in the train of Bacchos ; and it would seem as if they were a 
necessary part of those groups, and of the divine formations in general ; 
fiction being as it were completed by those beings, half divine and half 
brute 



SYLVANUS. 263 



FAUNS. 

The Fauns differ from the Satyrs; at least, according to the tech 
nical language of modern times. They are represented entirely in 
human form, but with erect and pointed ears, and the tail of a goat. 
Yet without these external marks, a Faun is easily recognized by his 
rough, ignoble features, which indicate the character attributed to him. 
Still there are some ancient monuments, which exhibit Falins of admi- 
rable beauty, in whose features that half-brutish, sensual temper is but 
slightly indicated. 

Both the form and character of the Faun offered to the ancient art- 
ists an inexhaustible source of representations ; and the chisel, as well 
as the pencil, is frequently employed in exhibiting the ridiculous being, 
either as he dances, or as he sits occupied in wreathing garlands ; or 
playing with his goats, or rocking his little one upon his knees ; and 
in many other different attitudes. Much waste of time and art is often 
displayed in the representation of the Fauns and their various occupa- 
tions. To the most attractive monuments of antique art in this style, 
belong the following : an old Faun dancing his little one upon his 
foot ; another turning the wheel of a well to draw water for a nymph, 
who in the mean time holds his thyrse ; two Fauns sitting opposite each 
other, one occupied in taking a thorn from the other's foot ; another 
allowing a young Faun to drink out of a wine pitcher. 

All these different exhibitions show that ease is the chief feature in 
the character of these fictitious beings. Thus they are distinguished 
from mortals, and made to resemble the gods, according to the words 
of an ancient bard : " On mortal man the celestials heaped much 
trouble and pain, but they themselves are free from cares." 

The peasants sacrificed lambs and kids to the Fauns with great 
solemnity. 

SYLVANUS 

Sylvanus was a deity who presided over the woods and the fruits 
they produced, and was worshipped by the nations of Latium. He was 
represented like Pan, except that he bears a branch of cypress in his 
hand, which intimates night in the forest, and alludes also to the joy- 
less and melancholy nature of his abode, which rendered him an object 
of terror to peasants and shepherds. 

There is an antique gem preserved in one of the German museums. 



264 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

generally known under the name of the seal ring of Michael Angelo, 
which is one of the finest specimens of lithotomy ever made ; exhibit- 
ing in a moderate compass all the above-mentioned inferior deities ; 
Nymphs, Cupids, Satyrs, and Fauns, united in one beautiful group. 
Two vines wedded to two elm trees, form by their tendrils a bower, 
over which two Cupids, hovering on their wings, spread a cover of 
cloth. Three female figures are carrying baskets on their heads filled 
with grapes,»while the others are seated and attending to a little child. 
With this group of sitting figures a Faun is associated, who, cowering 
on his knees, is pouring wine from a pitcher into a vessel, which was 
brought by a boy from behind him, while a Satyr, who stands beside 
the Faun, is winding a horn. The Cupid on one elm is reaching down 
into a basket of fruits, which is carried on one of the heads of the 
females, while that on the other is presented by a nymph with a cup 
of wine. In the midst of the whole group, the noble form of a man 
appears holding a horse by the bridle. The whole relates probably to 
the education of Bacchos, which was committed to the nymphs. 

THEMIS. 

Zeus, when Lord of all, united with Themis, which signifies possi- 
bility or aptitude arising from the necessary connection of things, or 
the laws of their existence. In action, Themis is the source of law, 
and her predictions of truth. 

Themis, as goddess of justice, still maintains her place among the 
modern deities. In this character, presiding over the distribution of 
justice, she is represented as a noble and majestic woman, having her 
eyes covered with a fillet, holding a balance in one hand, and a sword 
in the other. She is said to have succeeded her mother Earth in the 
possession of the Delphic oracle, and to have voluntarily resigned it to 
her sister Phoebe, who gave it as a natal gift to Phoebos- Apollo. 

By some mythologists, Themis is considered merely as an epithet 
of earth ; and others consider her as the oldest purely allegorical per- 
sonification of a virtue. 

The ancient poets also mention her daughter Astrsea, who descended 
from Heaven to be the tutelary deity of mortals, distributing justice, 
settling differences, teaching the principles of integrity, and inculcating 
an abhorrence of injustice and crime. Pitying the unfortunate race 
of Prometheus, she dwelt with them for a long time ; but when she 
found that, notwithstanding her endeavors, justice was overthrown by 



horjE. 265 



the misdeeds of men, and all reverence for what is holy banished from 
their lives, she left them in disgust and fled back to Heaven. 

HORJE. 

Having become the wife of Zeus, Themis produced the three amiable 
guides and guardians of life, the Horse, whose names are Eunomia 
(order). Dike (punishment), Irene (peace). Their office was to promote 
unanimity by the exercise of equity and justice. They likewise stand 
around the throne of Zeus, and their regular occupation is to open and 
shut the gates of Heaven, and yoke the steeds to the chariot of the 
Sun. 

Under the name of the Horae, the ancient fictions comprise, in the 
first place, the Genii of justice, children of Zeus and Themis ; and 
then the Seasons ; which, by a just partition of their benefits, as it 
were, preserve in continual succession the equipoise of nature. 

The dancing Horae, following each other in measured steps, are an 
emblem of fleeting time ; and, as friends and companions of the Graces, 
often mingle with them in a common choir. 

Winkleman's monuments contain a representation of the three Horse, 
taken from an antique marble. ' One of them, crowned with palm 
leaves, and standing before an altar, bearing fruit in her hands, signi- 
fies Autumn ; another, before whose feet a flower has sprung up, is an 
emblem of Spring ; and near the third, on a pile of stones like an 
altar, a little fire appears, intimating Winter. Under the serene and 
mild sky of Greece, Summer and Autumn vary but little in tempera- 
ture as well as products, therefore, one emblem is sufficient for both ; 
the Athenians usually represented but two seasons, Thallo and Carpo, 
blossom and fruit, the whole year being divided by them into spring 
and autumn. 

By poets and artists the seasons are all personified. They are fre- 
quently seen together on relievi, medals, and gems. On a medal of 
Commodus, they appear moving over a celestial globe, which lies by 
the goddess Tellus. The artists have also followed the poets in repre 
sen ting the four ages of life by depicting Yer (spring), as infantile and 
tender ; iEstas (summer), as young and sprightly ; Autumnus (autumn), 
mature and manly ; and Hyems (winter), as old and decrepid. 

Again Yer is a youth decorated with a coronet of flowers, or a bas- 
ket of flowers in his hand ; iEstas is crowned with corn or holds a 
sickle in his hand ; Autumnr "jis usually distinguished by his crown 



266 GR£C A AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



of different fruits ; and Hyems by his crown of reeds, the birds in his 
hand, or the beast at his feet ; and also by his warm clothing. 

EROS OR CUPID. 

Eros or Cupid is unnoticed by Homer. In the Theogony he is one 
of the first beings, and produced without parents. In the Orphic 
poems he was the son of Kronos. Sappho made him the offspring of 
Heaven and Earth, while Simonides assigned him Aphrodite and 
Ares for parents. In Olen's hymn to Eileithyia, that goddess was 
termed the mother of Love ; and Alcaeus said, that well-sandalled Iris 
bore Love to gold-locked Zephyros. 

Thespiae in "Boeotia was the place in which Eros was most worshipped. 
The Thespians celebrated games in his honor on Mount Helicon. The 
oldest image of the god in their city was of plain stone ; but Praxiteles 
afterwards made for them one of Pentelican marble of rare beauty. 
Eros also had altars at Athens and elsewhere. 

The G-od of Love was usually represented as a plump-cheeked, rosy 
boy, with light hair floating on his shoulders. He is always winged 
and armed with bow and arrows. 

Under the appellation of Eros and Anteros, Love, and Love requited, 
ancient art represents two Cupids contending for the possession of a 
palm branch, to. signify zeal in mutual love. The two Cupids, with 
the dolphin at the foot of Venus de Medici, are supposed to be these, 
and are now called by the antiquarians of Florence, Eros and Anteros. 

The Platonic philosopher, Porphyrius, tells the following pretty 
legend : Aphrodite, complaining to Themis that her son Eros con- 
tinued always a child, was told by her that the cause was from his 
being solitary, and that if he had a brother he would grow apace. 
Anteros was soon afterwards born, and Eros found his wings enlarge, 
and his person and strength greatly increase. But this was only when 
Anteros was near ; for if he was at a distance, Eros found himself 
shrink to his original dimensions. 

The divine person of Eros is multiplied by the ancients. Those 
little Cupids or Genii of Love, who every where appear in ancient 
fictions, are, as it were, sparks of this being. Poetry is inexhaustible 
in beautiful emblematic representations of the all-conquering god. 
Thus we find him as breaking the thunderbolts of Zeus : or as arrayed 
in the lion skin o r Heracles, and armed with his club ; or as stepping 
on the helmet of Ares, whose shield and spear are lying at his feet j 






CHARITES OR GRACES. 2tf7 

or, finally, as riding on a lion, taming the beast by tbe strains of his 
lyre \ — a beautiful emblem of the combined power of love and music. 

Ancient gems and pictures show us the Cupids in a variety of occu- 
pations. . One of these monuments exhibits a Cupid sitting on an elm 
tree, to which the vine is wedded, and gathering grapes, while two 
others wait under the tree for a gift from their brother. They are also 
found hunting, fishing, and managing the oar on the water, as well as 
directing the chariot by land ; and even busied with mechanical em- 
ployments. 

CHARITES OR GRACES. 

In the Graces are multiplied the eminently dazzling charms of the 
powerful Goddess of Love. The three sisters descended from heaven, 
for the benefit of mortal men — instilling into their bosoms the lovely 
feeling of gratitude and mutual benevolence, and gracing their persons 
with the precious gift of pleasing. 

The Graces were children of Zeus and Eurynome, the beautiful 
daughter of Oceanos ; and their names were Aglaia (Splendor), Thalia 
(Pleasure), and Euphrosyne (Joy)* Temples and altars were every 
where erected to their honor ; every age and every profession solicited 
their favor ; arts and sciences paid homage to them ; their altars were 
never without fragrant incense ; and at every joyful repast, their names 
were mentioned with veneration. 

Associated in friendly union with Love and the Muses, they had 
often a temple in common with the former, and still oftener with the 
latter. In Olympos they surrounded the throne of Jupiter. In 
heaven, as well as on earth, their dominion was acknowledged, and 
their influence, without which beauty itself is but a dead picture, was 
respected and honored. In the dancing attitudes of the three graceful 
sisters, are expressed the charms of personal dignity, of elegant move- 
ment, and of attitude and countenance by which beauty gains the soul 
of man ; and walking hand in hand as loving sisters, they indicate also 
every tender emotion of a heart overflowing with affection, friendship, 
and benevolence. 

The happy influence which the religious veneration of these lovely 
and significant beings exercised on the ideas and feelings of the an- 

* Of the three Graces, the Spartans originally worshipped but one, Aglaia, under the 
name of Phaenna {Brightness). Rejecting Joy and Pleasure, they adopted Cletha 
{.Sound) as a substitute. 



268 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

cients, is to be recognized in the whole life of the Greeks, as well as 
their works of art and science. The favor of the Graces was no where 
to be dispensed with ; and in order to intimate that, to make even the 
most extravagant formations of fancy agreeable, grace must be conceal- 
ed, hollow statues of Satyrs were formed, within which were found 
little figures of the Graces. 

Homer makes Juno promise the youngest of the Graces to the God 
of Sleep, if he would seal the eyes of Almighty Jove for a little time. 
A single reflection upon the effect of late hours and undue watching, 
will show the propriety of the union. It is this unnatural habit that 
pales the rosy lip, disarms the sparkling look, and robs a beauty of her 
native grace. 

By the ancient artists and poets, the Graces are represented as three 
beautiful sisters linked together ; and Horace represented the Graces 
and Nymphs as dancing together, with Venus at their head. Ganova's 
Graces, in the Duke of Bedford's fine gallery of sculptures at Woburn 
Abbey, are eminently beautiful and replete with grace. 

CAMENjE or muses. 

Mnemosyne, the personification of memory as the source and reposi- 
tory of every art and science, belongs to the ancient deities ; for she is 
the daughter of Heaven and Earth ; and as mankind are indebted to 
memory for their progress in science, Mnemosyne is said to be the 
parent of the Muses, who divided among themselves that treasure of 
wisdom which their venerable mother alone possessed. 

The Muses, as well as the Horae and Graces, all of them daughter 
of Zeus, originally presided over the stars and the seasons ; but the 
later Greeks took away these functions, giving them only such as were 
of a poetic character. An ancient bard thus sings the praises of the 
nine sisters : " They pour on the lips of man, whom they favor, the 
dew of soft persuasion ; they bestow on him wisdom, that he may be a 
judge and umpire among his people, and give him renown among na- 
tions ; and the poet who wanders on the mountain tops and in the 
lowly dales, is inspired by them with divine strains, which dispel sor- 
row and grief from the breast of every mortal." 

Their appropriate employments are music, song, and dance; but 
playful fiction has given to each of the sisters a particular vocation. 
Calliope was the muse of eloquence and heroic poetry (to her the an- 
cients gave precedence) ; Clio, of history ; Erato, of amorous poetry ; 



CAMEN.E OR MUSES. 



Euterpe, of music ; Melpomene, of 
tragedy ; Polyhymnia, of eloquence 
and imitation : Terpsichore, of 
dancing ; Thalia, of comic and lyric 
poetry ; and Urania, of astronomy. 
On a sarcophagus, in the Capito- 
line Grallery at Rome, there is a re- 
lievo in which the nine muses are 
represented ; by the help of this, 
together with Ausonius' descrip- 
tion of them (Idyl. 20), an attempt 
has been made to distinguish one 
muse from another. Herodotus 
has annexed their names to the 
nine books of his history ; and 
from their arrangement, as well as 
from the relievos, it would appear 
that their order is quite arbitrary. 
In the relievo above mentioned, 
they are placed and distinguished 
in the following manner : Clio is 
first, and distinguished by the roll 
in her hand, or sometimes with the 
longer, bolder pipe. Her office was 
to celebrate the actions of departed 
heroes ; though Statius makes her 
descend to lower functions, from 
the old notion that every thing 
penned in hexameters was an epic 
poem, 

Thalia was the Muse of comedy and pastorals, and is distinguished 
by the comic mask in her hand, and her pastoral crook. 

Terpsichpre has nothing to distinguish her ; Ausonius gives her the 
cithara (or lyre), and sometimes she is represented in a dancing atti- 
tude. On the medals of the Pomponian family, three Muses have 
stringed instruments in their hands, and are supposed to represent 
Terpsichore, Erato, and Polyhymnia. 

Euterpe presided over music and performed on two pipes at once, 
as in the remarks before Terence's plays. By these pipes she is dis* 





270 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

tinguished. though sometimes she holds the fistula (or pipe), and is 
so described by Ausonius. 

Erato, who presided over amorous poetry, is represented at times 
as pensive, and again full of gaiety ; both which characters, though 
directly opposite, suit with the ever-varying moods of lovers, and are 
appropriate to their patroness. Ovid invokes Erato in his Art of Love, 
and likewise in his Fasti for April, which among the Romans was con- 
sidered as peculiarly the lover's month. But Yirgil, in his iEneid, 
appears with less propriety to invoke her before a field of battle ; un- 
less, indeed, it was that a woman was the occasion of the war. Calliope 
is called by Ovid the chief of the Muses, and by Horace, Regina, as 
skilful on all instruments. The tablets in the hand mark her distin- 
guishing character, which was to note down the worthy actions of men. 

Polyhymnia is designated by a stringed instrument, perhaps what 
the Romans call barbiion, for which we have no name. 

Urania presided over astronomy, and is distinguished by the celes- 
tial globe and the radius. In statues, the globe is sometimes placed 
in her hand, and sometimes on a column before her. Melpomene, the 
Muse of tragedy, was supposed to preside over melancholy subjects of 
all kinds. She is distinguished by the mask on her head. 

In the Homeric poems, the Muses are the goddesses of song and 
poetry, and live on Olympos. There they sing the festive songs at 
the repasts of the immortals. At the funeral of Patroclus they sing 
lamentations. 

The Muses were sometimes represented as dancing in chorus, to in- 
timate the near and indissoluble connection that exists between the 
liberal arts and sciences ; but more generally appeared differently 
attired, and with symbols of their respective characters. 

Their worship was universally established, particularly in the en- 
lightened parts of Greece, Thessaly, and Italy. Sacrifices were not 
offered to them, but no poet ever commenced his task without address- 
ing a solemn invocation to the Muses who preside over verse 

The sacred retreats of these divine sisters, from whose lips flowed 
the stream of song and sweet eloquence, were the celebrated mountains 
Parnassus, Pindus, and Helicon. 

Mount Helicon is to Boeotia what Parnassus is to Phocis. The 
principal cities of that country are grouped about its sides ; as the 
Phocian towns are connected with those of their own mountain ; and 



camen,e or muses. 271 



as the mountain of Phocis could show upon its summit the Corycian 
Cave, which was dedicated to the Parnassian Nymphs, so upon the 
heights of the Boeotian hills were the favorite haunts of its own deities. 
Here flourished the grove of the Muses, whose statues stood beneath 
the shady recesses of these mountain glades ; here flowed the sacred 
spring of Aganippe, round which the Muses danced ; here was the 
clear source of Hippocrene, in which they bathed. The whole moun- 
tain was celebrated for its fresh rills, and cool groves, and flowery 
slopes : and while the legends connected with the other mountains of 
Greece were sometimes of a terrific and often of a stern and savage 
character, those which are produced, as it were, by the soil and scenery 
of Helicon, partook of the softness and amenity which distinguish the 
natural character of the mountain from which they sprang. Helicon 
had no GEdipus nor Pentheus. 

Plutarch, in his treatise of Rivers and Mountains, cites from Her- 
mesianax, the historian of Cyprus, the following legend, descriptive of 
the character of the two principal mountains which belong to the chain 
which encircles Bceotia : " Helicon and Cithaeron were two brothers ; 
but very different from each other in temper and character. The for- 
mer was mild and courteous, and dutiful to his parents. Cithseron, 
on the other hand, was covetous and avaricious. He wished to obtain 
all the property of the family for himself. To gain this object he de- 
stroyed his father, and afterwards threw his brother by treachery down 
a precipice ; but he himself, also, was carried over the cliff at the same 
time from the thrust with which he impelled his brother. After their 
death, by the will of the gods, these two brothers were changed into 
the two mountains which bore their names. Cithaeron, by reason of 
his impiety, became the abode of the Furies ; the Muses, on account 
of his gentle and affectionate disposition, chose Helicon as their favorite 
haunt." 

The natural features of these two mountains are, as might be ex- 
pected, in harmony with this mythological narrative. The dales and 
Blopes of Helicon are clothed with groves of olives, walnut, and almond 
trees ; clusters of ilex and arbutus deck its higher plains ; and the 
oleander and myrtle fringe the banks of the numerous rills which gush 
from its soil, and stream in shining cascades down its declivities into 
the plain between it and the Copiac Lake. 

One of the heights of Helicon is the Libethrian hill, where stood, in 
ancient times, a consecrated grove intersected by two fountains : be- 



272 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

neath its shade were the statues of the goddesses, to whom it was ded- 
icated. Here, also, was the hallowed grotto of the Libethrian Nymphs. 
The site is now occupied by a monastery, about three miles to the south- 
west of Mazi, the modern village which stands very nearly upon the 
site of the ancient Haliartus. 

On Helicon, according to ancient belief, no noxious herb was found. 
Here, also, the first Narcissus bloomed. The ground is luxuriantly 
decked with flowers, which diffuse around a delightful fragrance. It 
resounds with the industrious murmur of bees, and with the music of 
pastoral flutes, and the noise of waterfalls. Two of the sources which 
rise from its soil have acquired a celebrity unequalled by that of vast 
rivers. Not far from the site of the village of Ascra, the residence of 
Hesiod, which is five miles to the south of Haliartus, rises the spring 
of Aganippe ; the river of Permessus takes its rise at the same spot. 
Still further to the south is the fountain of Hippocrene, which springs 
from the soil above the valley of Marandali, shaded by pine trees 
planes, and hazels. Near this fountain Pausanias saw a very ancient 
copy of the Works and Days of the Bard of Ascra, written upon lead, 
which the inhabitants of Helicon, who showed it, maintained to be the 
only genuine prod action of that author. 

At a monastery of St. Nicholas, a little to the north-east of Marandali, 
was recently found an inscription containing a catalogue of the victors 
in the Musea or Games in honor of the Muses, which proves that the 
grove consecrated to them, in which these games were celebrated, stood 
near the spot. 

Pausanias enumerates the works of art existing in the place at th? 
time in which he visited it, namely, in the age of the Antonines. Here, 
at that period, were the statues of the nine Muses, sculptured by three 
different artists : here stood a group consisting of Apollo, Mercury and 
Bacchos. contending for the lyre ; near them was an erect figure of 
Bacchos. one of the finest works of Myron ; here was a portrait of 
Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses. The statues of great poets adorned 
the same place : here stood the ancient minstrel Linus ; near him was 
Thamyris. already blind, striking a broken lyre : Arion riding his 
dolphin ; Hesiod with his harp upon his knees ; Orpheus surrounded 
with animals, attracted by the melody of his song, at that time stood 
under the shade of these trees ; but they have all now disappeared ; 
while the trees wave, the flowers bloom, and the streams flow as thej 
did of yore. 



CAMEN.E or muses. 



273 



Among the celestials, Apollo is most intimately associated with the 
Muses. He presides over the sister choir, when on Mount Parnassus 
they take their golden harps ; 

" And with preamble sweet, 
Of charming symphony, they introduce 
Their sacred songs, and waken raptures high. 
No voice exempt ; no voice but well could join 
Melodious part." 

From thus presiding over and leading the choir of the Muses, he is 
represented by the plastic art of the ancients, clothed in a long, flow- 
ing robe ; which, in olden times, was the festive attire of the bards. 

Heracles also, under the name of Musagetes, was venerated by the 
ancients as a leader of the Muses. This fact will not surprise us, if we 
consider that, according to various writers, and principally Plato in his 
Republic, the science of harmony, together with wisdom and bodily 
strength, was the most desirable for a Greek ; and therefore music, 
philosophy, and regular corporeal exercises, went hand in hand in the 
course of his education, in order to gain its three great ends, viz., to 
cultivate the heart, to unfold the 
mind, and to strengthen and direct 
the soul. Philosophy there was 
none in the days of Hercules ; but 
in his person, music could be com- 
bined with strength, as both were 
found united in the person of 
Achilles, 

The Muses were once challenged 
by the Sirens to a contest in sing- 
ing ; the former easily obtained the 
victory, and punished the arrogance 
of their rivals by plucking the 
feathers from their wings and wear- 
ing them on their own heads as a 
sign of superiority. 

Upon an ancient monument, a 
Siren is represented from her waist 
upward as a beautiful maiden, and 
downward like a bird. On her 
shoulders are wings, and in her hand 

18 




274 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



she carries two flutes. She turns a mournful countenance towards a 
Muse 3 who, standing behind her, triumphantly holds in one hand the 
wing of the Siren, while with the other she plucks out the largest 
feathers. 

Presumption and arrogance in the use of talents were always severely 
punished in ancient fictions. The Satyr Marsyas was flayed by Apollo 
for having ventured on a contest with that god, thinking to surpass the 
harp with his flute ; and Thamyris, the Thracian bard, who, vain of 
his talents, both in music and poetry, presumed to challenge the daugh- 
ters of Mnemosyne ; for which they punished him with blindness, and 
the loss of his lyre, or, in other words, his poetical ability. 

The following explanation is given of the fable of Marsyas : " A 
strain of poetry stretched beyond its due limits turns to a strain of mad- 
ness ; the soft voice of native music, which, when the mind is in its 
natural state, breathes nothing but harmony and love, if raised to an 
unnatural pitch, racks the laboring, unburdened breast, and breaks loose 
in rage and foaming ecstasy. Wild looks, amazing postures, and soul- 
rending sounds, commonly ushered the furious, dithyrambic song ; and 
when heightened by wine and processional worship, were as so many 
Steps that led to the tortured bacchanal state, of tossing and roaring. 

" In this condition, the beautiful order, the divine harmony of the 
breast is defaced ; the delicate economy of the passions reversed ; dis- 
sonance and torture rack the distorted soul, and wretched Marsyas. 
the rival of music (the disorderly din of the passions, the wild shout 
of joy, or the piercing yell of grief), is inevitably seized, first whipped 
by Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, and next hung upon a tree and 
flayed alive by Apollo. It was not long, however, before Apollo re- 
pented of his cruelty ; the passions soon subside ; the mind retires by 
degrees to its natural, harmonious state, and the strings of his lyre, 
which, in the bitterness of remorse, he had thrown away, were gathered 
up by the Muses (the mild powers of measure and invention), who, that 
they might not be again obnoxious to the like disaster, added the mid- 
dle string, the chord that makes music sedate ; that prevents the elas- 
tic leaps, the irregular bounds, the dissonance and disproportion that 
set the passions in an uproar, and pour madness and misery into the 
human soul. 

" "We have but little conception of the ancient power over the heart- 
melting art. To a delicate ear, the sound can hardly be formed that 
does not bear a relation to some passion, or some inward sentiment, 



HEBE. 



27ft 



and this fable, though so apposite and expressive, is a beautiful speci- 
men of ancient mythology but little understood." 




HEBE. 

Hebe, the goddess of youth, was daugh- 
ter of Zeus and Hera. She was employed 
by her mother to prepare her chariot, and 
harness her peacocks, whenever requisite, 
and was cup-bearer to all the gods. 

Fable says, that Zeus dismissed her from 
this office, declaring her to be unworthy of 
it, because, on one occasion, when handing 
nectar to the gods, she, by a fall, violated 
that gracefulness which must accompany 
every motion and gesture of the attendants 
at the table of Olympos. 

She was superseded by Granymedes (Joy-promoter), a son of Tros, and 
a great-grandson of Dardanos, the founder of Troy. The poets say, "he 
was the handsomest of mortal men;" and on account of his beauty, 
the gods took him from the earth, that in Olympos he might reach 
the nectar cup to Jove ; henceforth partaking of the constant society 
of the immortals. In the shape of his eagle, the Thunderer carried 
away his favorite from the top of Mount Ida 5 softly bearing him in his 
crooked talons from earth upward to the sky. In this charming fic- 
tion, consoling Fancy veiled the loss of the youth, who, in the prime of 
life and beauty, could scarcely be thought mortal ; and therefore his 
vanishing from the earth was explained as a removal to the seat of the 
celestials. 

The fictions respecting the favorites of the gods, gain a peculiar charm 
by a kind of dim and melancholy twilight in which they are veiled. 
Whenever youth and beauty became the prey of death, some deity was 
said to have removed her favorite from the earth. In this manner, 
mourning was mingled with joy ; and lamentations for the departed 
were mitigated. These fictions, therefore, are most frequently repre- 
sented upon ancient marble coffins. 

When Heracles was translated to the skies, and raised to the rank 
of a god, Hebe was given to him in marriage — a beautiful fiction, by 
which the venerated sun-god was united to immortal youth. 

Hebe, the personification of youth, had the power of restoring gods 



276 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



and men to youth, and, at the instance of her husband, performed that 
kind office to his friend Iolaos. She was worshipped at Sicyon under 
the name of Dia, and at Rome under the name of Juventas. Hebe is 
represented as a young virgin, crowned with flowers, and arrayed in a 
variegated garment. Sometimes she holds the nectar cup ; at others, 
the eagle stands by her side, which she is in the act of caressing. 



PROTEUS. 

Proteus, a sea-deity, was considered by some as a son of Oceanos 
and Tethys ; by others, as a son of Poseidon and Phoenice. 

Homer introduces him in the fourth book of the Odyssey, styling him 
a Sea-elder, and gives him the power of foretelling the future. He 
also calls him Egyptian, or servant of Neptune, and says that his office 
was to keep the seals, or sea-calves, belonging to the Ruler of the 
waves. 

Proteus could assume any form at pleasure, changing himself into 
fire or water, plant or animal, which rendered him difficult of access ; 
and sometimes, when consulted, evaded an answer by a sudden meta- 
morphosis. To those only who held him fast with vigorous arms, did he 
appear in his real character, and by his spirit of divination reveal to 
them the truth. 

By some he is supposed to represent the various forms and shapes 
assumed by primitive matter, the substance itself ever remaining the 
same. Others, who would deduce all fable from history, suppose that 
he represents the various ensigns used by the kings of Egypt. 

Plato, laughing, makes him an emblem of the quackish sophists ; Lu- 
cian, of the players ; Eustathius, of flatterers ; Cassiodorus, of traitors .; 
and St. Austin makes him the emblem of truth, which perhaps is the 
best explanation ; for, with this view of it, the allegory of Proteus is of 
deep philosophical import. The constant versatility of the human 
heart, now impelled by some praiseworthy emotion, and now by some 
evil impulse, its fluctuations of thought, of passion, and of purpose, 
is aptly represented by the ever-changing nature which is the peculiar 
characteristic of Proteus. 

The changeable character of Proteus was more easily managed by 
the poets (who could describe him in all his various shapes, with the 
transition from one to another), than by the artists, who could exhibit 
him only in his own form, or in some one alone of all his transmuta- 
tions. Of all the poets, Virgil has described him the most fully. He 



janus. 277 

gives the character of his person and the description of his cave, with 
his sea-herds about him. He represents him as tending them on 
shore ; as plunging himself into the sea ; and as riding over its sur- 
face. He marks out, briefly indeed, but in a picturesque manner, the 
whole series of this changeable deity's transmutations. 

JANUS. 

The worship of Janus must be ascribed to the Etruscans, by whom 
he was regarded as the inspector of Heaven, and therefore of all trans- 
actions. An- image of the god with four faces came from Valerii to 
Rome, which is supposed to have reference to the four regions of 
Heaven. 

In Italy he was usually represented with two faces, one before and 
one behind, and hence called Bifrons and Biceps. Sometimes he is 
represented with four faces, and then called Quadrifrons. There was 
an ancient statue of this deity in the Forum, said to be as old as the 
time of Numa, of which the fingers were so formed that those of one 
hand represented three hundred (CCC), those of the other fifty-five 
(LV), the number of the days of the ancient lunar year. All this is 
explicable on the supposition of Janus being the sun, the author of the 
year, with its seasons, months, and days. 

Janus was invoked at the commencement of most actions ; even in the 
worship of the other gods the votary began by offering wine and incense 
to Janus. The first month in the year was named from him ; and 
under the title of Matutinus he was regarded as the opener of the day. 
Hence he had charge of the gates of Heaven, and hence, too, all gates, 
Januce, were called after him, and supposed to be under his care. 
Hence, perhaps, it was, that he was represented with a staff and key, 
and that he was named the Opener (Paiulcius), and the Shutter ( Clu- 
sius). 

The Janus Geminus, or Janus Quirinus, was the celebrated gate 
(not temple) which stood on the way leading from the Palatine Quir- 
inal, and which was to be open in time of war, and shut in time of 
peace. To understand this much mistaken subject (for nothing is more 
common than to speak of opening or shutting the temple of Janus), 
we must go back to the early days of Borne. 

The original Borne lay on and about the Palatine, while a Sabine 
colony had settled on the Quirinal, whose town was probably the origi- 
nal Quires or Cures, and the gate of Borne on that side was naturally 



278 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

named the Quirine Gate — Janus Quirinus. Further, the Roman gates 
were always double, that is, consisting of two arches, by one of which 
people went in, while they passed out by ihe other; hence this was 
called a Janus G-eminus. The relation of this gate to war and peace, 
seems not so much a tradition of ancient usage, as a fiction of the times 
when Rome was engaged in ceaseless warfare, which certainly was not 
her condition in the early days of the republic. 

The temples of Janus Quadrifrons were built with four equal sides, 
each side containing a door and three windows. The doors were em- 
blematic of the four seasons, and the windows of the three months 
belonging to each. 

The origin of Janus may be traced back to the mythology of India. 
Janus, with his wife and sister Camasane, half fish and half human 
being, as sometimes represented, can only be explained by a compari- 
son with the avatars, the descents or incarnations of the Hindu deities. 
Viewed in another way, the name Janus or Djanus assimilates itself 
very closely to that of Diana. These two appellations resolve them- 
selves into the simple form Dia, or the goddess by way of excellence ; 
and this Dia belongs in common to the religions of Samothrace and 
Attica. She is the Pelasgic Ceres, frequently found under this denom- 
ination in the songs of the Fratres Arvales. 

While the Jupiter of Dodona was penetrating into Italy and Latium, 
with his spouse Dione (the same as Juno), Dia-Diana and Janus arrived, 
by another route, in Etruria, from the borders of Pontus and the isle 
of Samothrace. From this view of the subject it would appear that 
Jupiter and Janus were originally distinct from each other, but subse- 
quently more or less amalgamated. The system of Dodona and that 
of Samothrace, the Latin system and that of the Etrurians, based on 
ideas mutually analogous, united, but did not become completely 
blended with e&jh other. 

On the soil of Italy, Janus appears at one time as a king of ancient 
days, at another as a hero who had rendered his name conspicuous by 
great labors and by religious institutions ; at another again as a god 
of nature. At first he is called the Heavens on the Etrurian doctrine. 
He is the year personified, and his symbols contain an allusion either 
to the number of months or to that of the days of the year. The 
month of January, called after him, formed, from the time of Numa, 
the commencement of the religious year of the Romans. On the first 
day of this month, an offering consisting of wines and fruits was pre- 



janus. 279 



sented to Janus, and called the Janual. On this same day the image 
of the god was crowned with laurel, the consul ascended in solemn 
procession to the capitol, and friends made presents to one another. 

By virtue of his title, God of Nature, Janus is represented as holding 
a key : he holds this as a god who presides over gates and openings. 
He opens the course of the year in the heavens ; and every gate upon 
earth, even to those of private dwellings, is supposed to be under his 
superintending care. This attribute, indeed, is given him in a sense 
of a more or less elevated nature. It designates him at one time as 
the genius who presides over the productions of the year, and dispenses 
them to mortals ; who holds the key of fertilizing sources, of refreshing 
streams. At another time it typifies him as the master and sovereign 
of nature in general ; the guardian of the universe, of the heaven, earth, 
and sea. As holder of the key, Janus took the name of Clusius ; as 
charged with the care of the world, he is styled Curiatius. 

Thus, und^r these and similar points of view, Janus reveals himself 
to us as exactly similar to the gods of the year in the Egyptian, Persian, 
and Phoenician mythologies. Like Osiris, Sem Heracles, Dscheinschid, 
and others, he represents the year personified in its development through 
the twelve signs of the zodiac, with its exaltation and its fall, and with 
all the plenitude of its gifts. And, as the career of the year is also 
that of the souls which traverse in their migrations the constellations 
of the zodiac, Janus, as well as the other great gods of nature, becomes 
the guide of souls. Similar in every respect to Osiris- Serapis, like him, 
he is called the Sun ; and the gate of the east, as well as that of the 
West, becomes at once his peculiar care. Janus also assimilates him- 
self to the Persian Mithras, and becomes the mediator between mortals 
and immortals. He bears the prayers of men to the feet of the great 
deities. 

His representation of two faces has various explanations. Similar 
figures with a double face are found on medals of Etruria, Syracuse, 
and Athens. Cecrops, for example, was so represented ; and in every 
case, it is rational to suppose that it was purely allegorical. It recalls 
to mind the figures, no less strange and significant, of the Hindu divin- 
ities : Janus with four faces is identical in appearance with the Brahma 
of India. 

As the gods who preside over nature and the year, in the oriental 
systems, raise themselves to the higher ofiices of gods of time, eternity, 
and infinity, so it seems to have been with the western Janus. He is 



280 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

called the inspector of time, and Time itself: in a cosmogonical sense, 
he passes for Chaos. Under these two points of view, he is distinct 
from Jupiter, the supreme ruler, and the universal regulator of things, 
inasmuch as Janus had especially under his control the beginning and 
the end. In the higher doctrine, however, all distinction between the 
two disappears. As Clusius, or bearer of the key, Janus was the 
monarch of the universe, and Greece had no divinity that could be at 
all compared with him. 

In the solemn ceremonies and religious songs of the old Romans, he 
figured as inaugurator, and even bore the name. At the festivals of 
the great gods, he had the first sacrifices offered to him. He was also 
called the Father, and the Salii invoked him in their hymns to the 
god of gods. This god of gods they named Janes or Eanus, while they 
assumed the name of Janes or Eani, in accordance with the ancient 
usage which so often assimilated the priests to their divinities. 

As Janus presided over the beginning of every year, the people 
offered sacrifices to him on the first day of the year. The priests 
offered sacrifices on twelve altars, as to the beginner of twelve months, 
and prayed to him at the commencement of every day. The sacrifices 
offered consisted of cakes, barley, incense and wine. 

On new-year's day, which was the principal festival of the god, peo- 
ple took care that all they thought, said, and did, was pure and favor- 
able, since every thing was considered as ominous for the occurrences 
of the whole year. Hence the people wore festive garments, abstained 
from cursing and quarreling, saluted all they met with kind words, 
exchanged presents, and performed some part of what they intended to 
do in the course of the year. 

The presents consisted of sweet-meats, such as gilt dates, figs, honey 
cakes, and copper coins showing on one side the double head of Janus, 
and on the other a ship. 



ASCLEPIOS OR ESCTJLAPIUS. 



281 



ASCLEPIOS OR ^ESCULAPIUS. 

The first beginning of medical 
science was likewise considered by 
the ancients as something divine, 
and its possessor and practiser as 
worthy of veneration. He who first 
applied medical art was looked 
upon, even after his death, as a be- 
neficent human being, to whom the 
sick would not address their pray- 
ers in vain. 

iEsculapius was the son of Apol- 
lo and Coronis, the daughter of a 
Thessalian king. By his father he 
was committed to the care of the 
wise Centaur, Cheiron, who taught 
him Botany, together with the 
secret efficacy of plants. By means 
of this information, iEsculapius be- 
came the benefactor of mankind, 
applying the various remedies that 
he had learned to the diseases 
which afflict mankind. 

And so successful was he in the 
practice of the art, that fiction 
speaks of him as having awakened 
the dead. Pluto, the ever-destroy- 
ing power, considering this an en- 
croachment on his rights, com- 
plained before the throne of Jupi- 
ter, of the awaker from the dead as 
a daring criminal. Jupiter then 
punished the second great benefactor of mankind, as he* had done the 
first (Prometheus), by hurling lightnings upon his innocent head. He 
who had assuaged the pains of men, and healed their diseases, thus be- 
came himself a victim of his beneficent art. 

After his death, groves, temples, and altars were consecrated to him ; 
but Epidaurus, in Greece, was the principal seat of honor. His sons. 




282 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Machaon and Podaleirios, were heroes and leaders in the Trojan war, 
and, at the same time, renowned for their skill in medical art. 

The snake, as an emblem of recovery and health, 
was sacred to Asclepios, probably because of its re- 
newing itself, as it were, by casting its skin. Hence 
the god of medicine always carries a staff, around 
which is twined a snake. The figure of a little boy 
is sometimes found with that of Asclepios, wearing 
a bonnet on his head, and entirely muffled in a cloak. 
His name is Telesphoros ; and his infant form, to- 
gether with his usual covering, seems to allude, in a 
certain manner, to his convalescence, as well as the 
mysterious art of his master. 

Of his four daughters, Hygeia, iEgle, Panacea, 
and Iaso, Hygeia was the most celebrated. To her, 




uT 



divine honors were paid ; and her occupation, like 

that of her father, was the preservation of health. 

This benefit she distributes among mortals as a mild gift, whenever 

she descends from the higher regions to earth. She is represented 

with a snake eating out of a flat cup which she holds in her hand. 

The temples of Asclepios were regarded as sanctuaries which none 
of the profane could approach without repeated purifications ; and the 
statue of Hygeia at iEgrium, in Achaia, could only be viewed by the 
priests. The temple at Tithorea was surrounded by a hedge in the 
vicinity of which no edifice could be erected. This hedge was forty 
stadia from the building itself 

The worship rendered to Asclepios had for its object the diversion 
of the sick, by the ceremonies of which they were the witnesses. 



COMUS. 

Comus, the god of gay humor and merry jests, the genius of life's 
cheerful enjoyment, was considered by the ancients as worthy of a place 
among divine beings. He presided at banquets, and in general at 
all social feasts. 

In allusion to his midnight revelries, he is represented with heavy 
head, and drowsy mien, bearing in his band a half-extinguished torch. 



LIBERTAS. 383 



HYMEN OR HYMEN^EUS 

Hymen, the god of marriage, is represented as wearing a wreath of 
roses round his head, and carrying in one hand the nuptial torch, and 
in the other holding a veil. At every nuptial feast hymns were chanted 
to his honor, and his presence hallowed the sacred union, as well as the 
joys of the wedding feast. 

The names originally designated the bridal song, which was subse- 
quently personified. 

PLUTUS. 

Plutus, the personification of wealth, is represented as son of Jason 
and Ceres. By many mythologists he has been confounded with Pluto, 
though plainly distinguished from him as being the god of riches. He 
was reared by the goddess of peace, and on that account, Pax was rep- 
resented at Athens as holding the god of wealth in her lap. The 
ancients represented him as blind, and as bestowing his favors indis- 
criminately on the good and bad. He appears as an actor in the com- 
edy of Aristophanes, called after his name, and also bears a part in the 
Timon of Lucian. 

The popular belief among the ancients assigned him a place in the 
subterranean regions of Spain, a country famed for its precious metals. 
Phsedrus relates, in one of his fables, that when Hercules was received 
into Heaven, and was saluting the gods who thronged around with their 
congratulations, he turned aside when Plutus drew near, assigning to 
Jupiter as a reason when he inquired into the cause of this strange 
conduct, that he hated Plutus, because he was a friend to the bad, and 
moreover corrupted both good and bad with his gifts. 

LIBERTAS. 

Liberty was a goddess of ancient Home, to whom a temple was con- 
secrated on the Aventine Hill by T. Gracchus, and improved and adorned 
with many admirable statues and brazen columns by Pollio, and in 
which was also a gallery for the deposit of the public acts of the state. 

This goddess was commonly represented in the figure of a woman in 
white robes, holding a rod in one hand, and a cap in the other. The 
cap, according to Valerius Maximus and other ancient writers, was a 
badge of liberty used on all occasions. It, as well as the rod or wand, 
referred to the custom of the Romans giving slaves their freedom. In 



284 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

the performance of that ceremony, the rod was held by the magistrate, 
and the cap by the slave, even for some period previous. Sometimes 
a cat is found placed at the feet of the deity, this animal being ver 
fond of liberty, and impatient when confined. 

The statues of Liberty were numerous among the ancients, as was 
also the personification on medals. Of the former kind, that in the 
Aventine temple, before alluded to, was a conspicuous instance. It 
had the head crowned, and a sceptre in one hand, while the other held 
the cap. The emblems of liberty are more particularly met with upon 
the medals of Galba, and the reason appears to be, that, on the death 
of that infamous hero, the citizens were full of hope that the republic 
would be restored, and were seen running in all directions through the 
streets, decorated with the cap of liberty. 

One of Galba's coins presents the figure of this goddess in an attitude 
somewhat uncommon. She is represented as standing between two 
ears of corn, lifting up her hands towards Heaven. This is typical of an 
exhortation to the people to give themselves to the cultivation of agri- 
culture, since the execrable tyrant was dead, who had desolated the 
face of the country. 

TERMINUS. 

Terminus was worshipped at Rome, as the guardian of landmarks. 
His statue was a rude stone or post set in the ground to distinguish 
boundaries. 

"When Tarquinius Priscus wished to build a temple to Jupiter on the 
Tarpeian rock, it was necessary to remove the altars of the deities who 
already occupied the summit. The assent of each deity was sought by 
the augurs, and Terminus alone refused to go. His altar, therefore, 
always stood in the temple. 

He was represented with a human form without feet or arms, to in 
timate that he never moved. 

There was an annual festival observed at Rome, in the month of 
February, in honor of Terminus, called Terminalia. 

It was then usual for peasants to assemble near the principal land- 
marks which separated their fields, and after they had crowned them 
with garlands and flowers, they made libations of milk and wine, and 
sacrificed a young pig. This festival was originally established by 
Numa. Shedding the blood of victims was at first forbidden, but in 
after times the landmarks were plentifully sprinkled with it. 



PALES. 



285 



His worship is said to have been insti- 
tuted by Numa, who ordered that every one 
should mark the boundaries of his landed 
property by stones consecrated to Jupiter, 
and at which sacrifices were to be offered at 
the festival of the Terminalia. These sa- 
cred boundaries existed not only in regard 
to private property, but also in regard to 
the state itself, the boundary of which was 
not to be transgressed by any foreign foe. 
In later times the latter must have fallen 
into oblivion, while the Termini of private 
property retained their sacred character, 
even in the days of Dionysius, who states 
that sacrifices of cakes and meal still con- 
tinued. 

The god Terminus, himself, appears to 
have been no other than Jupiter, in the 
capacity of protector of boundaries. As 
has been previously stated, Mercury be- 
came with the Romans the god Termi- 
nus. 

PALES. 

Pales, a Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds, is described by 
some as a male divinity, and by others as a female. Hence some 
modern writers have inferred that Pales was a combination of both 
sexes ; but this is altogether foreign to the religion of the Romans. 
Some of the rites performed at the Palilia, the festival of Pales, would 
seem to indicate that the divinity was of a female character ; but there 
are other reasons for believing that Pales was a male divinity. 

The name seems to be connected with Palatinus, the centre of all 
the earliest legends of Rome, and the god himself was with the Ro- 
mans the embodiment of the same idea as the Pan among the Greeks. 

The festival called Palilia was celebrated on the twenty-first of April, 
and was regarded as the day on which Rome was founded. The shep- 
herds, on the Palilia, lustrated their flocks by burning sulphur, and 
making fires of olive, pine, and other substances. Milk, with cakes 
made of millet, was the sacrifice offered to Pales Prayers were made 




286 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

to him to avert disease from the cattle, and to bless them with fecun- 
dity and abundance of food. Fires of straw were kindled in a row, 
and the rustics leaped thrice through them : the blood of a horse, the 
ashes of a calf, and bean stalks, were used for purification. 

FLORA. 

Flora, the goddess of flowers, is represented as a young and hand- 
some female, whose head is crowned with a chaplet, and whose robe is 
decorated with garlands of flowers. She was supposed to be the wife 
of the handsome god Zephyrus. 

Flora was an ancient Italian deity, being one of those said to have 
been worshipped by Tatius. Her festival, celebrated at the end of 
April and beginning of May, was termed Floralia. 

VERTUMNUS OR VORTUMNUS. 

Vertumnus was a very distinguished Etruscan god, whom the old 
Volscinian settlers at Rome established as their chief deity. 

The changeable form given him by the poets relates to much of life 
and the fruits of the year. He is represented of various appearance, 
perhaps from the fulness and changeableness of the gifts of the seasons. 
Etruscan art represents him like Bacchus. The garden growth of the 
spring, and the crops of summer, are under his protection ; he espe- 
cially presides over autumn and its blessings. Wine and fruit are 
considered as his peculiar gifts. 

The Vertumnalia were celebrated by the whole people on the twenty- 
third of August. Ceres and Pomona were combined with Vertumnus ; 
and though in Rome a demi-god, in Etruria he was doubtless the great 
and mighty god of the seasons. 

POMONA. 

Pomona, the wife of Vertumnus, was a Roman goddess, who presided 
over fruit trees. Her worship was of long standing at Rome, where 
there was a Flamen Pomonalis, who sacrificed to her every year for 
the preservation of the fruit. 

The story of Pomona and Vertumnus is prettily told by Ovid. This 
Hamadryad lived in the time of Procrus, king of Alba. She was de- 
voted to the culture of gardens, ":o which she confined herself, shunning 



VICTORIA. 287 



all society with the male deities. Vertumnus, among others, was en- 
amored of her, and under various shapes tried to win her hand ; some- 
times he appeared as a reaper, sometimes as a haymaker, and again as 
a ploughman or a vine-dresser: he also became a soldier and a fisher- 
man, but to as little purpose. At length, und^r the guise of an old 
woman, he won the confidence of the goddess ; and by enlarging on 
the evils of a single life, and the blessings of a wedded state, by launch- 
ing out into the praises of Vertumnus, and relating a tale of the pun- 
ishment of female cruelty to a lover, he sought to move the heart of 
Pomona ; and then, resuming his real form, he obtained the hand of 
the no longer reluctant nymph. 

Vertumnus was connected with the transformation of plants, and 
their progress from blossom to fruit ; hence the story of his having 
assumed various forms to gain the love of Pomona, and at last, that of 
a blooming youth. 

Pomona is represented as in the prime of youth and beauty, deco- 
rated with the blossoms of fruit trees, and at the same time bearing a 
branch in her hands loaded with fruits 

FERONIA. 

Feronia was an inferior goddess, or guardian deity of woods and 
groves, and was worshipped with great solemnity both by the Sabines 
and Latins, but more particularly the former. 

It is related that when a grove near Mount Soracte, in Etruria, which 
was sacred to her, took fire, the inhabitants of the adjacent country 
hastened to rescue the statue from the flames ; but the goddess inter- 
posed, and immediately restored the grove to its former verdure. 

She had also a temple, grove, and fount, near Anxur, and in this 
temple manumitted slaves went through certain formalities to complete 
their freedom ; such as cutting off and consecrating their hair, and 
placing upon the head a pileus, or cap. 

Flowers and first-fruits were the offerings made to Feronia. 



VICTORIA. 

Victory attended the conquests of all countries and all heroes. In 
Italy and Greece she had temples and statues. At Rome, Sylla insti- 
tuted festivals in her honor ; and in the temple of Jupiter, on the Cap- 



288 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

itoline Hill, a golden statue of the goddess was placed, weighing three 
hundred and twenty pounds. A thunderbolt having fallen upon the 
statue and broken its wings, Ponipey restored the courage of the people, 
who were depressed by the circumstance, by crying, " Romans ! The 
gods have broken the wings of Victory ; henceforth she can never es- 
cape from us." 

Victory is generally represented with wings, and almost in the atti- 
tude of flying, with her robe as carried back by the wind. As the 
reward of conquerors, she holds in her hand a crown of laurel, which, 
with the palm branch and a trophy, were her general attributes. Her 
wings and robe are described as white. She is sometimes seen hover- 
ing between two fighting armies, as doubtful which to choose ; and 
sometimes standing fixed to the army she is resolved to favor. 

On the medals of Roman families which had their name from her, 
she is represented as drawn by two horses. A picture at Rome exhibits 
her as ascending to Heaven in a chariot drawn by four horses, as she 
appears on the Antonine pillar carrying up the hero. The trophy was 
a proper mark for her at Rome, as there was one or more before the 
door of every officer who had gained any advantage over his enemies. 

FORTUNA. 

Fortune, that unseen power, supposed to exercise such arbitrary 
dominion over human affairs, was also deified, and she had her temples 
and altars in Greece. By Hesiod and by one of the Homerids, she is 
classed among the Ocean nymphs. Pindar speaks of her as the child 
of Zeus Eleutherios ; elsewhere he says that she is one of the Destinies. 
Alcman calls her the sister of Law and Persuasion, and daughter of 
Forethought. 

From her hands were supposed to be received riches and poverty, 
blessings and pains, Measures and misfortunes. She was deified by 
the Romans, and in Bceotia she had a statue, represented as holding 
Plutus in her arms, to intimate that Fortune is the source whence 
wealth and honors flow. She is represented blindfold, and her hand 
resting on a wheel to intimate her inconstancy. 

Fortune was also thought to direct the events of human life. But 
Juvenal speaks of her as blind, Horace as inconstant and delighting 
in mischief, and Statius as unjust. Cybele, on an antique gem, turns 
her head away from Fortune, and in the attitude of rejecting. She is 
represented by Ovid as standing on a wheel, but more generally with 



VERITAS. 289 



wings, and a wheel by her side. Sometimes with a wheel only, to show 
that she presided over the expeditions of the emperors and their happy 
return. She is then called on the medals Fortuna redux. Her usual 
attributes are the cornucopia, as the giver of riches, and the rudder in 
her hand often rested on a globe as the directress of all worMly affairs. 

The inconsistent character of this goddess caused several distinctions. 
The Romans had a good and bad, a constant and inconstant Fortune 
According to Horace, the bona, Fortuna is dressed in a rich habit; and 
the mala Fortuna in a poor one. Fortuna manens, or the constant For- 
tune, is without wings, and sitting in a stately posture. She has a 
horse as an animal of swiftness, which she holds by the bridle. Incon- 
stant Fortune is winged, as ready to fly away. Horace speaks of both 
as deserving the favor of one, and as being above the power of the 
other. 

The Fortune worshipped at Antium seems to have been of the most 
exalted character among the Romans. In a solemn procession to her 
honor, alluded to by Horace, the statue of Necessity was carried before 
her, and after her, those of Hope and Fidelity. 

FORTITUDO. 

Fortitude, a deification of courage and bravery, was one of the moral 
deities of the Romans, whose worship is enjoined in the laws of the 
twelve tables. 

Upon a common medal of Hadrian, Fortitude is represented with an 
erect air, resting on a spear with one hand, and holding a sword in the 
other. She has a globe under her feet, to show that the Romans were 
to conquer the world. From their military disposition, they gave 
Fortitude the name of Virtue, or the virtue, by way of excellence ; by 
which they understood not only military courage, but a firmness of 
mind and love of action ; a steady readiness to do good, and a patient 
endurance of all evil. Cicero speaks of Virtus and Fortitudo as the 
same, and of both as including a love of action. 

VERITAS. 

Truth is said to be the parent of Justice and Virtue. The great 
Apelles has represented her, in his painting of Calumny, under the 
appearance of a modest female. In her hand is placed a round mirror. 

Ancient poets say that she was for a long time hidden from the 
World at the bottom of a well ;• but on one occasion leaving its quiet, 

19 



290 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

she was so frightened at the reception she met with, that she returned 
immediately to her hiding-place. According to Democritus, this is 
intended to intimate the difficulty with which she is discovered. 

VIRTUS. 

Virtue, daughter of Truth, and the Roman peisonification of manly 
valor, is represented clothed in white, as an emblem of purity ; some- 
times holding a sceptre, at others crowned with laurel. In some in- 
stances she is represented with wings, and placed upon a block of 
marble, to intimate her immovable firmness. 

Virtus is spoken of personally, both in verse and prose. She had 
several temples at Rome containing representations of her, and her 
figure is common on the medals of the Emperors. 

Mr. S pence thinks her figure more common than is imagined, and 
that in the Admiranda, what Bartoli takes to be the genius of Rome, 
is this goddess ; as where she is giving the globe to M. Aurelius, guid- 
ing the chariot of Titus, and conducting Adrian home. On these she 
is habited like an Amazon. She is sometimes in a coat of mail, or a 
short vest, with her legs bare like the Roman soldiers. She has a 
manly face and air, and generally grasps a sword or a spear. Her 
dress shows her readiness for action, and her look a firmness not to be 
conquered by difficulties and dangers. 

HONOS. 

The personification of honor was worshipped -as a virtue at Rome, 
and her first temple was erected by Scipio Africanus, and another 
afterwards was built by Claudius Marcellus. An augur having warned 
Marcellus that these two divinities would not dwell in the circumfer- 
ence of the same temple, he built two distinct edifices ; but to arrive 
at the temple of Honor it was necessary to pass through that of Virtue. 

The emblems of this goddess are. the crown of laurel, the lance, and 
the horn of plenty ; though she is sometimes represented with the olive 
branch of peace instead of arms, which she gives as the reward of bra- 
very. We find her personified on several medals of Galba and Vitel 
lius. 

PAX. 

Peace, the daughter of Jupiter and Themis, wears a crown of laurel ; 
in her hand is a branch of the olive tree, and by her side the statue of 
Plutus, to intimate that peace gives rise to prosperity and opulence. 



FELICITAS. 291 



Venus and the Graces were her companions, and an altar was erected 
to her at Athens ; but at Rome, where the goddess of war was pecu- 
liarly honored, several altars were dedicated to Peace. One of the 
most magnificent was raised by Vespasian, after the war of Judea, and 
contained all tha treasures taken from the temple at Jerusalem, con- 
sisting of a splendid library, busts, statues, and pictures, as well as a 
large collection of natural curiosities. 

This temple was consumed in the reign of Commodus, previous to 
which it was customary for men of learning to assemble there, and even 
to deposit their most valuable writings as a place of safety ; and con- 
sequently the loss which occurred when it was consumed, could scarcely 
be estimated. 

FIDELITAS. 

Fidelity, the goddess of honesty, was one of the moral deities of the 
Romans, who presided over the virtues of men, and the conduct of 
human life. This deity was one of those to whose honor the Romans 
were enjoined, in the laws of the twelve tables, to erect altars. 

She was represented with an erect and open air, and clad in a thin, 
transparent dress. The poets called her blameless and incorruptible, 
and the companion and sister of Justice. They also at times represent 
her as grey-headed and very old, but not so in her figures as found on 
antique medals. 

Two hands joined together are the emblems of faith given and re- 
ceived, and she is represented as offering her hand ; and sometimes as 
two hands conjoined, as on medals of Marcus Antoninus, Vespasian, 
Titus, and others. Again she is portrayed as holding in one hand a 
patera, and in the other a horn of plenty, a caduceus, an eagle, or some 
other symbol. The inscriptions on these antique medals are generally 
fides publico,, fides senatus, fides Romanorum, fides exercitus, etc., etc. 

Her priests were dressed in white during her public ceremonies ; 
but no victims were sacrificed upon her altar, because she was deemed 
inflexible, and unyielding to prayers, however urgent. 

FELICITAS. 

Felicity was a symbolical moral deity of the Greeks and Romans. 

She was the goddess of happiness, prosperity, or blissfulness, and a 

personification of one of those moral beings by whose aid the ancients 

supposed mortals obtained a place in the heavens, and to whose honor 



292 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

the Romans were enjoined, in the laws of the twelve tables, to erect 
altars. 

There is scarcely a virtue or a blessing of life, but what is represent- 
ed on the medals of the emperors ; and this minor divinity is repre- 
sented by the ancient artists and poets, with the caduceus of Mercury 
in one hand, and the cornucopia in the other, as emblems of peace and 
prosperity, the two chief ingredients of happiness. In the hymn to 
Mercury, attributed to Homer, Apollo designates the caduceus as the 
sceptre of felicity and riches. Horace speaks of her under the name 
of Faustitas, and hints that she prefers dwelling in the country to re- 
siding in cities. 

According to Pliny, Lucullus, on his return from the war with Mith- 
ridates, proposed to erect a statue to Felicity from the chisel of Ar- 
cesilaus, but both died before its completion. Julius Caesar also intend- 
ed to erect a temple in honor of this divine protectress in the square 
of his palace in front of the Caria Hostilia, but it was finished by Lep- 
idus. There were also other temples to her honor in Rome, one of 
which (that erected by Claudius) was reduced to ashes in a confla- 
gration. 

AMICITIA. 

Friendship, the Greeks represented clothed in a clasped garment, 
her head bare, her dress open near the heart, holding in the left hand 
an elm, around which a vine is clinging, filled with clusters of grapes. 

At Rome she was represented as a young maiden with a white robe, 
her bosom partially covered, her head adorned with myrtle and pome- 
granate flowers intermixed. On the border of her tunic was written 
" Death and Life" — on her front, " Summer and Winter." Her side 
was open and the heart visible, bearing these words, " Far and near." 

In Homer we meet a number of moral qualities, to which he gives 
personality. Terror and Fear, the children of Ares, and Strife, his 
sister, in connection with him, rouse the Trojans to battle. Strife is 
said to be small at first, but at last to raise her head to Heaven. By 
Zeus she is sent forth amidst the Achseans, bearing the signal of war ; 
and standing on the ship of Odysseus in the centre of the fleet, shouts 
so as to be heard at either extremity. When Ares hears of the death 
of his son Ascalaphos, Terror and Fear are commanded to yoke the 
steeds to his car for war. 



AMICITIA. 293 



Prayers, says Homer, are the daughters of great Zeus, lame and 
wrinkled, with squinting eyes. (11. ix. 502.) They follow Ate 
(Mischief), and tend those whom she has injured ; but Ate is strong 
and firm-footed, and gets far before them, afflicting men, whom they 
afterwards heal. Elsewhere he relates that Ate is the daughter of 
Zeus, who injures all ; that her feet are tender, and that she therefore 
does not walk on the ground, but on the heads of men. Having con 
spired with Hera to deceive her father, he took her by the hair and 
flung her to earth, with an oath that she should never return to 
Olympos. 

The Theogony of Hesiod contains a number of these personified 
qualities ; they also occur in the subsequent poets. Thus iEschylus 
introduces on the stage Strength and Force. Sophocles, by a very 
beautiful and correct figure, terms Fame " the child of golden Hope ;" 
and to this personification the Athenians erected an altar, as they did 
also to Shame, Impetuosity, and Mercy. 

The more stern Spartans erected temples to Fear, Death, and Laugh 
ter. But in the deification of the moral qualities, the Italian religion 
far exceeded that of Greece. 



" From having a different creed of our own, and always encountering 
the Heathen Mythology in a poetical, fabulous shape, we are apt to 
have a false idea of the religious feelings of the ancients. We are in 
the habit of supposing that they regarded their fables in the same po- 
etical light as ourselves ; that they could not possibly put faith in Ju- 
piter, Neptune, and Pluto ; in the sacrifice of innocent turtle doves. 
the libation of wine, and the notions about Tartarus and Ixion. 

"The greatest pleasure arising to a modern imagination from the 
ancient mythology, is a mingled sense of the old popular belief, and of 
the philosophical refinements upon it. We take Apollo, and Mercury, 
and Venus, as shapes that existed in popular credulity ; as the greater 
fairies of the ancient world ; and we regard them at the same time as 
personifications of all that is beautiful and genial in the forms and ten- 
dencies of creation. But the result, coming as it does, too, through 
avenues of beautiful poetry, both ancient and modern, is so entirely 
cheerful, that we are apt to think it wanted gravity to more believing 
eyes. Every forest, to the mind's eye of a Greek, was haunted with 
superior intelligences. Every stream had its presiding nymph, who 
was thanked for her draught of water. Every house had its protecting 



294 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



god, which had blessed the inmate's ancestors, and would bless him 
also if he cultivated the social affections ; for the same word which ex- 
pressed piety towards the gods, expressed love towards relations and 
friends. If in all this there was nothing but the worship of a more 
graceful humanity, there may be worships much worse as well as better. 
" Imagine the feelings with which an ancient believer must have gone 
by the oracular oaks of Dodona, or the calm groves of the Eumenides, 
or the fountain where Proserpina vanished under ground with Pluto ; 
or the laurelled mountain, Parnassus, on the side of which was the tem- 
ple of Delphi, where Apollo was supposed to be present in person. 
Imagine Plutarch ; a devout, and yet a liberal believer, when he went to 
study theology and philosophy at Delphi : with what feelings must he 
not have passed along the woody paths of the hill, approaching nearer 
every instant to the presence of divinity, and not sure that a glance of 
light through the trees was not the lustre of the god himself going by ! 
This is mere poetry to us, and very fine it is ; but to him it was po- 
etry, and religion, and beauty, and gravity, and hushing awe, and a 
path as from one world to another." 

Leigh Hunt. 

11 Oh ! ye delicious fables, where the wave 

And wood were peopled ; and the air, with things 

So lovely — why, ah ! why has science grave 
Scatter'd afar your secret imaginings 1 

Why sear'd the delicate flowers that genius gave, 
And dash'd the diamond drops from Fancy's wings'? 

Alas ! the spirit languishes, and lies 

At mercy of life's dull realities. 



No more, by well or bubbling fountain clear, 

The Naiad dries her tresses in the sun, 
Nor longer may we in the branches hear 

The Dryad talk, nor see the Oread run 
Along the mountains, nor the Nereid steer 

Her way among the waves when day is done. 

Shadows nor shapes remain" 

Barry Cornwall. 



PART FOURTH. 
DEMI-GODS AND HEROES* 



DEMI-GODS AND HEROES. 



In the assembly of the gods, Jupiter is represented as ruling su- 
preme. He frowns, and Olympus trembles ; he smiles, and the sky 
brightens. But heaven is not his only theatre of action ; enveloping 
his deity in illusive forms, he descends to earth to propagate his power 
in a race of heroes. 

From his seat on high, he descends to Danae in the form of a 
golden shower, and the valiant Perseus springs forth ; who, with power- 
ful arm, subdues monsters. 

In the form of Amphitryon he appears to Alcmena, and makes her 
the mother of Hercules. 

With the majestic neck of a swan, he clings to Leda for protec- 
tion, and she becomes the mother of the magnanimous Pollux, and 
the god-like Helena, the most beautiful woman that earth ever pro- 
duced. 

In the strength of a mettled bull, he invites the virgin Europa to 
mount his back, and carries her through the floods of the sea to the 
shores of Crete, where she brings forth Minos, the wise and powerful 
law-giver of nations. 

In these fictions all nature is deified ; even animals are considered 
as sacred beings. Thus nothing mean or abject lies in the idea of rep- 
resenting the supreme divinity in any form that is offered by all-com- 
prising nature. As the wind stirs up the quiet sea, so the jealousy of 
Juno brings life into these fictions of imagination ; and this jealousy 
is not destitute of sublimity, for, being endowed with divine power, it 
checks even the boasted omnipotence of the Thunderer. 

That an opposing, jealous, yet eminent power strives to check the 
highest authority, is likewise entirely appropriate to the genius of these 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



fables ; according to which, the beautiful and strong, in developing 
itself, must struggle against opposition and difficulties, and sustain 
many trials and dangers before its value is acknowledged and ap- 
proved. 

The demi-gods were also called Semones, as being descended from a 
mortal and an immortal. The deified mortals, or peculiar gods of any 
country, were called Indigetes. 

In the poems of Homer, the heroes are described merely as warriors 
who had distinguished themselves by extraordinary strength, courage, 
and prudence ; these qualities being essential to those who were charg- 
ed either with the government of the people, or the conduct of the 
wars. The poets, posterior to Homer, placed the heroes in an interme- 
diate rank between gods and men ; therefore they were called demi- 
gods, and temples were erected, and sacrifices offered to them. Their 
time is called the Heroic, and in the period to which the achievements 
of the heroes are attributed, much fable is mingled with true history. 

The heroic times of the ancients is the period when they passed 
from the savage to the civilized state. That of the Greeks is the 
most celebrated ; perhaps from its history having been handed down 
to us by the most distinguished poets. Those times commenced 
with the establishment of the kingdom of Sicyon (an ancient city of 
Greece), about 2164 B. C, and were closed after the siege of Troy, 
1245 ; but the greatest events are embraced in the six last centuries of 
that period. 

PERSEUS. 

The history of Perseus belongs to the earliest period of the heroic 
age, and is therefore the most involved in clouds and fable. 

To trace the earthly descent of this hero, it is necessary to go back 
to old Inachos, whose daughter, Io, gave Zeus a son in Egypt, named 
Epaphos. Libya, the regal daughter of Epaphos, became the mother 
of Belos and Agenor, the sons of Neptune. Belos was the father of 
Danaos and iEgyptos. 

Danaos came from iEgyptos over to Greece, to assert and maintain 
his claims to the kingdom of Argos, against Gelanor, who at that time 
actually reigned over the country. The claims of the former rested 
upon his descent from Inachos ; those of the latter, on the right of pos- 
session. The people were called upon to decide to whom the royal 
crown belonged ; while they were yet wavering, a wolf rushed into a 



PERSEUS. 



299 



herd of cows and destroyed the bull that defended them. This un- 
expected accident was considered as a sign from the gods, that the 
stranger was destined to reign, instead of the native. Accordingly. 
Danaos ascended the throne ; and to him the Argives are said to be 
indebted for the knowledge of digging wells and the building of ships. 

Danaos, according to the legend, had fifty daughters, and iEgyptos 
as many sons. The latter came over to Greece, each of them intending 
to marry a daughter of Danaos. But Danaos had received warning 
from an oracle, that one of his sons-in-law would deprive him of his 
royal authority ; and, anxious to retain his throne, he commanded each 
of his daughters to kill her husband on the first night of their mar- 
riage. This cruel order was obeyed by all of them except Hypermnes- 
tra, who, notwithstanding the danger that threatened her own life in 
consequence, suffered Lynceus, her beloved husband, to fly. But he 
afterwards returned ; for Danaos became reconciled to his daughter, 
and Perseus and Hercules, the god-like heroes, are descendants of 
Lynceus and Hypermnestra. Endless labor was the punishment in- 
flicted on the Danaides for this crime. They were condemned to pour 
water incessantly into a vessel full of holes, and to see every moment 
that their labor is vain. 

Atlas, a son of Lynceus, reigned over Argos after the death of his 
father, and left two sons, Prcetos and Acrisios, who at different times 
contested with each other for the royal authority. 

Acrisios in his turn feared destruction from his descendants. It 
had been predicted to him that he should be killed by one of his grand- 
sons. He therefore shut up his only daughter, Danae, in a brazen 
tower, that he might thwart the prediction of the oracle. But his 
precaution was rendered ineffectual by Jupiter, who, descending in a 
golden shower through an opening in the roof of the building, made 
her the mother of Perseus. 

When Perseus was born, his grand-father committed both mother and 
child to the sea, in a crazy bark. The benevolent goddess of the deep, 
tenderly taking up the divine boy, together with his mother, in the lap 
of the waters, brought the bark to a haven on the shores of the small 
island of Seriphos, in the iEgean sea. Here they were found by Dictys, 
a fisherman, and carried by him to Polydectes, king of the island, who 
kindly received both mother and child, and superintended the education 



300 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



of young Per- 
seus, intrusting 
him to the care of 
the priests of Mi- 
nerva's temple. 

His rising ge- 
nius and manly 
courage, howev- 
er, soon displeas- 
ed Polydectes ; 
and the monarch, 
who wished to 
get Danae into 
his power, feared 
the resentment 
of her son. Yet 
Polydectes re- 
solved to remove 
every obstacle, 
and invited his 
friends to a sump- 
tuous entertain- 
ment, requiring 
all who came to 

present him with a beautiful horse. Perseus was included, knowing 
that it was not in his power to furnish the requisite gift. But Perseus, 
who wished not to appear inferior to the other guests in magnificence, 
told the king, that as he could not bring him a horse, he would bring 
the head of Medusa, the only one of the Gorgons who was subject to 
mortality. This offer was particularly agreeable to Polydectes, as it 
would remove Perseus from Seriphos ; and as his undertaking seemed 
impossible, the attempt might perhaps end in his ruin. 

The innocence of Perseus was protected by the gods. Pluto lent 
him a helmet which had the power of rendering the wearer invisible ; 
Minerva gave him her buckler, which was as resplendent as glass ; and 
from Mercury he received wings and the talaria, with a short dagger 
made of diamonds, and called harpe. With these arms Perseus com- 
menced his expedition, and traversed the air, conducted by the goddess 
Minerva. 




PERSEUS. 301 

He first went to the Graeae, the sisters of the Gorgons, and with the 
aid of Plutote helmet, which made him invisible, stole from them the eye 
and tooth which they shared in common, and refused to return them 
until he was informed of the residence of their sisters. When he had 
received every necessary information, he flew to the habitation of the 
Gorgons, and found the monsters asleep. He knew that, by fixing his 
eyes upon them, he should be instantly changed to stone, he therefore 
looked continually upon his shield, which reflected all objects as clearly 
as the best mirror. He approached them, his courage supported by 
the goddess Minerva, and with one blow struck off the head of Medusa. 
The noise awoke the two immortal sisters, but Pluto's helmet rendered 
Perseus invisible, and the attempts of the Gorgons to revenge their 
sister's death proved fruitless. The conqueror made his way through 
the air, and from the blood which dropped from the head of Medusa 
-prang those innumerable serpents which have ever since infested the 
sandy deserts of Libya. 

Minerva was the chief instigator to this bloody deed ; having resolved 
on the destruction of Medusa, because, in company with Neptune, the 
monster had profaned her sanctuary. But when Perseus had brought 
down the deadly stroke, Stheino and Euryale sighed and groaned so 
loud at the view of their slain sister, and the hissing of the snakes upon 
their heads echoed so mournfully to their groaning, that Minerva, 
moved at the terrible concert, invented a flute with which she endeav- 
ored to revive these mournful sounds, by imitating their different 
strains. Thus, even in the midst of sanguinary and terrible destruction, 
the goddess of Art shines forth. 

Chrysaor also, with his golden sword, sprang from these drops of 
blood, as well as the horse Pegasos, which immediately flew through the 
air, and stopped on mount Helicon, where he became the favorite of 
the Muses. Meantime, Perseus had continued his journey across the 
deserts of Libya ; but the approach of night obliged him to alight in 
the territories of Atlas, king of Mauritania. He went to the monarch's 
palace, where he hoped to meet with a kind reception, by announcing 
himself as the son of Jupiter. But in this he was disappointed ; for 
Atlas recollected that, according to the prediction of an ancient oracle, 
his gardens were to be robted of their fruit by one of the sons of Ju- 
piter ; he therefore not only refused Perseus the hospitality he de- 
manded, but even assailed his person with violence. Perseus, finding 
himself inferior to his powerful enemy, showed him the head of Medusa 



302 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



and Atlas was instantly changed into a large mountain, which bore the 
same, name in the deserts of Africa. 

On the morrow Perseus continued his flight, and passing the terri- 
tories of Libya, he fixed his eyes upon the Ethiopian coast, where he be 
held a maiden fastened with chains to a rock, and a monster rising out 
of the sea ready to devour her ; while her parents stood on the shore 
wringing their hands in despair. Perseus rushed down upon the 
monster at the very moment it was seizing its prey, struck the deadly 
blow, and delivered the fair maiden. It was Andromeda, who, to atone 
for a crime of which she was guiltless, was to have become the victim 
of divine anger. Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda, and wife of Ce- 
pheus, had dared to compare the beauty of her daughter with that of 
the powerful daughters of Nereus, and in consequence, the whole coun- 
try was laid waste with plagues, which, according to the oracle of Ju- 
piter Ammon, were not to cease until Andromeda, swallowed up by a 
sea-monster, should, by her death, expiate the crime of her mother. 

The parents of Andromeda having been witnesses of their daughter's 
rescue, readily complied with the wish of her deliverer, and gave her 
to Perseus in marriage. Phineus, however, brother of Cepheus, to 
whom Andromeda had been betrothed, accompanied by an armed body, 
appeared at the wedding feast, and furiously assailed the bridegroom, 
who would have been overpowered but for the head of Medusa. Warn- 
ing his friends of the dangerous power of the G-orgon's head, they 
turned away their eyes ; but on showing it to his adversaries, they in 
a moment became petrified statues, each in the posture and attitude 
in which he then stood. 

After having accomplished these exploits, Perseus conducted his 
bride to Seriphos, where he again saw his mother and Polydectes. 
But alas ! he was here compelled to turn the petrifying head against 
bis foster-father and benefactor. Polydectes, fearing him and his 
mighty arm, made an attempt upon his life ; but was punished for his 
cowardly suspicion by being transformed into a rock. Dyctis had pro- 
tected his mother during his absence ; and Perseus, sensible of his 
merits and humanity, placed him upon the throne of Seriphos 

He afterwards restored to Mercury his talaria, harpe, and wings ; 
to Pluto his helmet ; and to Minerva her shield ; but as he was mora 
particularly indebted to the Goddess of Wisdom for her assistance and 
protection, he placed the Gorgon's head on her iEgis. 

When Perseus heard that his grandfather Acrisios, had been de 






PERSEUS. 303 



prived of his throne by his brother Proetos, far from seeking revenge 
for the cruelty with which he and his mother had formerly been treated 
by Acrisios, he magnanimously hastened to Argolis with the design of 
replacing his grandfather in possession of his kingdom. He van- 
quished and killed Proetos, and after having restored to Acrisios the 
royal crown, he was recognized by him with joy and gratitude as his 
beloved grandson, his friend and benefactor. But Fate, who trifles 
with the hopes of mortals, had not recalled her former threat, and a 
tragic end was lurking beneath the seducing appearance. Perseus, 
knowing how much Acrisios was delighted with his skill in every bodily 
exercise, was one day resolved to give him a splendid proof of his dex- 
terity ; but alas ! the fatal quoit, as if directed by an evil daemon, mis- 
sing its aim, struck the head of Acrisios, and he fell lifeless to the 
ground. 

In consequence of this unfortunate accident, Perseus passed his 
future days in melancholy sadness, calling himself a parricide notwith- 
standing his innocence of the fatal event. His residence at Argos 
became insupportable to him, and therefore he induced the son of Proe- 
tos to exchange territories. But finding nothing at Tyrins, the capital 
of his new dominion, to obliterate from his memory the event which 
distracted him, he built the new city of Mycenae. 

One of the children of Perseus and Andromeda was Alcaeus, the 
father of Amphitryon, who was married to Alcmena, Electryon's daugh- 
ter, and the mother of Heracles. Another son of Perseus, whose name 
was Sthenelos, was the father of Eurystheus, who ruled over Mycenae, 
and whom Heracles was compelled to serve. 

Perseus himself, as well as the chief persons connected with his his- 
tory, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, and others, were, according to fiction, 
transposed among the constellations of the sky, where their names are 
immortalized. In this sense, the heroes of old were really raised to 
heaven, and a monument most durable and shining was erected to 
their names. 

Creutzer regards the Perseus of the Greeks as a modification of 
Mithras, the Sun-god of the Persians ; but his genealogy, as transmit- 
ted by the mythographers, would appear to give him still more relation 
to Egypt than to Asia. Descended from the ancient Inachos. the fa« 
iher of Phoroneus and Io, we see his family divide itself into two branch- 
es. From Phoroneus sprang Sparton, Apis-Serapis, and the Argive 



304 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Niobe. The union of Zeus and Io produced "Epaphos, Belos, Danaos, 
and omitting some intermediate names, Acrisios, Danae, and the heroic 
Perseus. If we examine closely the import of the names that form 
this completely mythic genealogy, we shall discover an evident allusion 
to Mithriac ideas and symbols. For example, Sparton has reference to 
the sowing of seed ; Apis, become Serapis, is the god bull upon or under 
the earth ; Io is the lowing heifer wandering over the whole earth, and 
at last held captive ; Epaphos, another and Grecianized name of Apis, 
is the sacred bull, the representative of all the bulls of Egypt ; Belos 
is the sun-king both in Asia and Egypt. 

In the person of Perseus all these scattered rays seem concentrated. 
The name of his mother, Danae, would seem to have reference to the 
earth in a dry and arid state. Zeus descending in a shower of gold, 
impregnating and rendering her the mother of Perseus, is Mithras or 
the golden sun fertilizing the earth. 

Perseus, coming forth from the court of the king of shades (Poly- 
dectes, the all-recipient), proceeds, under the protection of the goddess 
Minerva, holding in his hand the harpe, symbol of fertility, to combat 
in the west the impure and sterile Grorgons ; after this, returning to 
the East, he delivers Andromeda from the sea-monster, and becomes 
the parent of a hero of light, another Perses resembling his sire. Hav- 
ing returned victorious to Argolis, he builds, by the aid of the Cyclopes 
(subterranean workmen whom he leads in his train), a city, Mycenae, 
the name of which, according to different traditions, had reference 
either to the lowings of Io, or to the Gorgons mourning for the fate of 
their sister. Others derive the appellation from the scabbard of the 
hero's sword which fell upon the spot ; and others again, from a mush- 
room torn up by Perseus when suffering from thirst, and which yield- 
ed a refreshing supply of water in the place it had occupied. 

In all these there is more or less of mystic meaning, the leading idea 
being still that of the earth ; just as in the legend which makes Perseus 
to have killed Acrisios (the "confused," " dark," or "gloomy" one), in 
the discus by which the blow was given, there is an evident allusion to 
the orb of the sun. 

By closely comparing the principal features of these legends with 
the essential symbols presented by the Mithriac bas-reliefs, there ap- 
pears, both in the myths and in the sculptures of Mycenae, a wonder- 
ful accordance with these symbols. The Argive fables tell of a heifer — 
a heifer lowing and distracted with pain. An allusion to the sword 



PERSEUS. 305 



plunged into the bosom of the earth (represented by the heifer and by 
the Mithriac bull)* is preserved in the legend of the scabbard that fell 
to the earth, and gave a name to the city of which it presaged the 
founding. The shower of gold, the mushroom, the never-ending stream 
of water, of which this last is the pledge, are emblems of the solar em- 
anations, the signs of terrestrial fertility, and all Mithriac ideas. The 
Gorgons have reference to the moon regarded as a dark body ; they 
typify the natural impurity of the planet, which the energies of the sun 
(Mithras -Perseus, armed with his golden sword) are to remove, and 
give purity in its stead. Here, then, at the very foundation of the 
mythus, we find ideas of purification. Perseus, as well as Heracles, 
who descends from him, are purifiers. They purify the stains of evil 
by force and by the shedding of blood ; they are just murderers ; and 
the wings given in preference to Perseus, enter into this general con- 
ception. Both assuming an aspect more and more moral, end with 
being intermingled in human history ; and thus, according to one tra- 
dition, Perseus put to death the sensual and voluptuous Sardanapalos. 

This brings us to consider the numerous points of approximation 
acknowledged to exist, even by the ancients themselves, between the 
Greek hero, Perseus, and various countries of antiquity, such as Asia 
Minor, Colchis, Assyria, and Persia. At Tarsus in Cilicia, of which 
city both Perseus and Sardanapalos passed as the founders, the first 
was worshipped as a god, and very probably the second also. The 
name of Perseus (or Perses) is found in the solar genealogies of Col- 
chis. Perses, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, was, according to 
Hellanicus, the author of civilization in the district of Persia, called 
Artea. Herodotus also was acquainted with the traditions which, 
emanating originally from Persia itself, claimed Perseus for Assyria. 
Finally, in the place of Perseus, it is Achaemenes (Djemschid) whom 
the ancient expounders of Plato make to have sprung from Perseus 
and Andromeda. 

We have here, under the form of a Greek genealogy, the fundamental 



* Mithras is generally represented in sculpture as a young man, his head surmount- 
ed by a Phrygian bonnet, and in the attitude of supporting his knee upon a bull that 
lies on the ground. With one hand he holds a horn of the animal, and with the other 
plunges a dagger into its neck. Mithras here represents the generative Sun, in the 
full bloom of youth and power, while the bull indicates the earth, containing in its 
bosom the seeds, or germs of things, that the sun-god causes to come forth in abund- 
ant flood from the wound inflicted by his dagger of gold.— -Creutzer 

20 



306 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

idea of the worship of Mithras : the beam of fire which the sun forces 
into the bosom of the earth, produces a solar hero, who, in his turn, 
becomes the parent of one connected with agriculture. Djemschid- 
Perses, the chief and model of the dynasty of the Achasmenides, was 
the first to open the soil of Persia with the same golden sword, wielded 
by Perseus and Mithras, and which is nothing but an emblem of the 
penetrating and fertilizing rays of the luminary of day. 

If Perseus, however, seems, by his father, or his primitive type, to 
have reference to Asia, on the mother's side he is connected with Egypt, 
the native country of Danaos and the Danaides. At Chemnis he had 
a temple and statue ; and as Tarsus, where he was also worshipped;, 
received its name from the impress made by the fertilizing foot of 
Pegasos, or Bellerophon, who followed in the track of the high deeds 
achieved by Perseus in Lower Asia, so the Chemnites pretended that 
Egypt was indebted for its fertility to the gigantic sandal left by the 
demi god upon earth at the periods of his frequent visitations. They 
alone of the Egyptians celebrated games in honor of the warlike hero 
of the Sun ; this conqueror in his celestial career, this worthy precursor 
of He/cules, his grandson. 

If we connect what has been here said, with the traces of Mithriac 
worship in Ethiopia and Egypt, as well as in Persia and Greece, we 
shall be tempted to conjecture, that these two branches of a very early 
religion, the fundamental idea of which was the contest incessantly 
carried on by the pure and fertilizing principle of light against dark- 
ness and sterility, unite in one trunk at the very centre of the East. 

Milller regards the Mythus of Perseus and the Gorgon as one of the 
darkest legendary cycles of Grecian mythology, and difficult of expla- 
nation, because as yet we know nothing of the character of the worship 
of the ancient Athena. 

He speaks of Perseus as a daemonic being in close union with the 
ancient Argive Pallas, as a goddess who blesses the land with fruit- 
fulness. His daemonic nature being proved, not only by his wonderful 
achievements, but also by the divine worship which he received in Se- 
riphos and Argive Tarsus. 

The dry, sealed-up soil in the land of Pallas thirsts for rain, and 
Zeus, the father of life, descends into its bosom in a beautifying, boun- 
teous, therefore golden shower, in the same manner as the cloud which 
embraces Hera, is called in Homer, a golden one, from which glittering 



PERSEUS. 



307 



dew-drops fall. From this golden shower springs Perseus, and de- 
stroys the dreadful Gorgon, through whom the moon-beams become 
baleful, turning the soil to stone. Pallas, the benign goddess, the 
kindly nurse of seeds and plants, is thereby delivered of her antitype, 
and restored to full power. Then spring up the clear and living foun- 
tains of which the horse is the symbol ; but more particularly Pegasos, 
who was born at the fountain of Oceanos, was caught beside fountains, 
with his hoof struck out fountains, in his name also, a horse of foun- 
tains. Polydectes' demand of horses, and then the procuring of one 
by Perseus, are also a remnant of the symbolic legends. 

Miiller also remarks, that the mythus is thoroughly symbolical ; and 
as to its age, some idea may be formed from the fact that even in the 
time of Homer it had become ordinary, heroic fable. The symbolic 
character gives it a peculiar representability, and attracted elder art. 
which, as yet, was able to represent but little by expression and char- 
acteristic portraiture. Hence a Gorgoneian, as a work of the Cyclopes 
at Argos, and the Gorgonea, as impressions on very old Attic and 
Etruscan coins. 



The ancients represented the Gor- 
gons as winged, and with a broad, flat 
face, and a long tongue protruding 
from an enormous mouth, which open- 
ed from ear to ear. Later artists ban- 
ished this hideous mask from their 
compositions, and represented Medusa 
as the unhappy beauty who attracted 
the love of Neptune, giving her a mel- 
ancholy air, expressive of her regret 
at finding serpents mingled with her 
beautiful locks. But few serpents are 
represented, and so placed as to de- 
stroy all deformity ; sometimes brought 
under the chin, and again forming a 
necklace. The wings, gracefully p aced upon the head, add to the 
beauty of the composition. 




308 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



THE MEDUSA, 

AS COPIED FROM AN ANTIQUE GEM.* 

Fated sister of " the three," 
Mortal, though a deity ; 
Superhuman beauty thine, 
Demon goddess — pcrrer divine ! ' 
Thou a human death didst bear, 
Thou a mortal life didst share ; 
Yet thy soul, supremely free, 
Shrank not from its destiny : 
And the life-drops from thy head 
On Libyan sands, by Perseus shed, 
Sprang a scourging race from thee— 
Fell types of artful mystery. 
Thou wast the victim of dire rage, 
Minerva's vengeance to assuage; 
And thy locks, like molten gold, 
Sheltering love in every fold ; 
Transformed into the serpents' lair, 
That writhe and hiss thy keen despair. 

Fatal Beauty ! thou dost seem 
The phantom of some fearful dream • 
Extremes of horror and of love 
Alternate o'er our senses move, 
As wrapt and spell-bound, we survey 
The horrid coils which round thee play ; 
And mark thy wild, enduring smile, 
Lit by no mortal fire the while. 
Formed to attract all eyes to thee, 
And yet their withering blight to be ; 
Thy power mysterious to congeal, 
And from life's blood its warmth to steal- 
To petrify the mortal clay 
In its first glance of wild dismay ! 
Is a dread gift to one like thee, 
Cursed with a hateful destiny. 

Oh ! couldst thou unto mortals give 

Thy strength to suffer — grace to live ; 

Or teach them curses to defy, 

By resignation's heaven-ward eye; 

Oh ! couldst thou ope thy mission's seal 

And thy mysterious self reveal ; 



* Since these beautiful lines have appeared so differently worded in " The Female 
Poets of America," I feel obliged to state that this is a correct copy as firnished by the 
author. m. a. d. 



BELLEROPHONTES OR BELLEROPHON. 



Tell to the wondering what thou art — 

Hast thou a human, feeling heart? 

Know'st thou that worse than scorpion's sting, 

The misery stern remorse can bring 1 

The arid desert of the soul, 

Sear'd 'neath its scorching dark control 1 

If with thine other throes of pain 

Thou feel'st too this, nor dost complain, 

Just is thy place 'mongst gods to be, 

Their iEgis and dread mystery. — Mrs. A. R. St. John. 

BELLEROPHONTES OR BELLEROPHON. 

Bellerophon was a son of Glaueus ; and his adventures form a 
pleasing episode in the Iliad, where they are related to Diomedes by 
Bellerophon's grandson. 

The same Proetus by whom Acrisios was deprived of his kingdom, 
and who was at last vanquished and slain by Perseus, urged on by a 
false suspicion, gave to Bellerophontes the first occasion for his heroic 
feats. He was a grandson of Sisyphos, the founder of Corinth, who 
was a descendant of Deucalion, and the son of iEolus, from whom the 
iEolic race of heroes spread through many royal families of Greece. 

Having committed a murder, Bellerophon was forced to flee from 
Corinth, and he came to Proetus, who at that time was reigning in 
Argos. with whom he found an asylum. The gods had endowed the 
hero with manly vigor and beauty ; and Antaea, the wife of Proetus, a 
daughter of Iobates, king of Lycia, conceived a tender affection for the 
handsome youth, which was soon changed to hatred because it found 
no return on the part of Bellerophon. She basely accused him of an 
attempt on her honor, and enjoined her husband to avenge both her 
and himself. But the rites of hospitality were too sacred to allow of 
Proetus killing Bellerophon ; he therefore sent him to Iobates, his 
father-in-law, with a letter, in which he was desired to avenge the crime 
of which the bearer was accused, by putting him to death. Iobates. 
however, did not read the letter until he had hospitably received Bel- 
lerophon, after which, he also abhorred the thought of violating the 
sacred rites of hospitality. He therefore trusted to chance to effect 
his ruin, bidding him embark in the most dangerous enterprises, in 
which his destruction seemed inevitable. 

Of the monsters which descended from Phorcys and fair Ceto, one, 
the terrible Gorgo, was vanquished by Perseus ; but another, not less 



310 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 




formidable, was assigned to 
Bellerophon as a trial of his 
valor. It was the fire-vomiting 
Chimsera, with the head of 
a lion, the body of a goat, 
and the tail of a dragon. To 
this bold adventure the gods 
lent their assistance, granting 
Bellerophon the winged horse 
Pegasos. The hero bestrode 
him and then in the air com- 
menced the fight. The mon- 
ster defended herself to the 
utmost, sending from her 
mouth whole masses of fire, 
and coiling her dragon tail in 
formidable windings. But all this availed her not After a perseve- 
ring and obstinate struggle, the monster lay stretched on the ground 
weltering in her blood. 

Thus the most difficult tasks assigned to the heroes of antiquity, are 
always the killing of monsters and unnatural beings, who by degrees 
must vanish from the chain of things. It seems almost as if these 
fictions implied that truth and dream, reality and fable, had long to 
struggle with one another, before order was established. And it was 
a worthy task of the heroes of humanity, to banish these unnatural 
appearances and illusory exhibitions, in order to create around her 
regularity, light, and truth. The Sphinx hurled from the height of 
rock that she occupied, every one who could not solve her enigma ; but 
(Edipus had no sooner unriddled it, than she flung herself down into 
the abyss. 

Not enough that Bellerophontes had vanquished Chimaera, the scourge 
of the land ; he must now conquer the human enemies of Iobates, the 
courageous Solymians, and the manlike Amazons. As he was re- 
turning victorious, the king laid an ambush for him composed of the 
bravest men of Lycia, of whom not one returned home, as Bellerophon- 
tes slew them all. The king, now perceiving him to be of divine origin, 
gave him his daughter in marriage and shared his kingdom with him. 

But the happiness of this hero was of short duration ; for when, elated 
by his victories, he attempted by means of Pegasos to ascend to Ilea- 



HERACLES OR HERCULES. 311 

ven, Zeus, incensed at his boldness, sent an insect to sting the steed, 
which made Pegasos bound so furiously in the air as to throw his rider 
to the earth, where he wandered in solitude and melancholy until death 
relieved him of his grief. 

Though Homer makes no mention of Pegasos, this steed forms an 
essential part of the mythe of Bellerophontes. Tn the Theogony it is 
said of the Chimaera, that she was killed by Pegasos and the " good 
Bellerophontes." The poets seem all to agree in giving the winged 
steed to the hero, yet none of them inform us how he obtained him. 
But in Pindar we find a remarkable legend, which connects Bellero- 
phontes with Corinth. 

According to this poet, Bellerophontes, who reigned at Corinth, 
when about to undertake his adventures, wished to possess the winged 
steed Pegasos, who was accustomed to drink at the fount of Peirene, 
on the Acrocorinth. After frequent and fruitless attempts to catch 
him, he applied to the soothsayer, Polyeidos, for advice, and was di- 
rected by him to go and sleep at the altar of Athena. He obeyed the 
injunction, and in the dead of night the goddess appeared to him in a 
dream, and giving him a bridle, bade him sacrifice a bull to his sire, 
Poseidon ( Tamer), and then present the bridle to the steed. On awak- 
ing, Bellerophontes found the bridle lying beside him. He obeyed the 
injunctions of the goddess and raised an altar to her as Hippeia (Of 
the Horse). Pegasos at once yielded his mouth to the magic bit, and 
the hero mounting him, achieved his adventures. 

HERACLES OR HERCULES. 

The first Greek tragedian (iEschylus) introduces Prometheus when 
chained to a rock, complaining of his sufferings to the equally unfortu- 
nate Io, and predicting the birth of his deliverer, Heracles. 

Io, transformed into a cow, was by Juno's jealousy driven in frantic 
fury over the whole earth. She wandered to the solitary corner where 
Prometheus was suffering, who revealed her future fate as well as his 
own, telling her, that the thirteenth of her descendants would be his 
deliverer. The thirteen members of the family in uninterrupted de- 
scent are, To, Epaphos, Libya, Belos, Danaos, Lynceus, Atlas, Acrisios, 
Danae, Perseus, Alceeus, Alcmena, Heracles. 

The sons of Perseus, were Eleetryon, Sthenelos, Alcaeus. and Mestor 
of whom Eleetryon succeeded his father in the government of Mycenae 



312 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

The children of Alcaeus were, Anaxo and Amphitryon. Electryon 
married Anaxo, and from this marriage sprung Alemena, the mother 
of Heracles. Amphitryon lived at Electryon's court, and had confi- 
dent hopes of becoming his uncle's successor in the government, by his 
marriage with Alemena ; in which he was disappointed. 

Taphios, a grandson of Mestor, had founded a colony on the island 
of Taphos, whose inhabitants called themselves Taphians, or, from their 
living at a great distance from their native country, Teleboans. After 
the death of Taphios, Pterelaos, his son and successor, claimed a part 
of the inheritance of Mycenae, on account of his descent from Mestor, 
a son of Perseus, and sent his children thither to enforce his claims. 
Upon Electryon's denying the justice of them, and refusing to restore 
any thing of Perseus' inheritance, the sons of Pterelaos, with their peo- 
ple, laid waste the country, and drove away the royal herds. The sons 
of Electry©n immediately collecting a body of men, fought a battle with 
the invaders, in which the leaders on both sides were killed, with the 
exception of one son of Electryon, Lycimnius, and one of Pterelaos, 
Eueres. 

Upon this, Electryon resolved on going in person against the Tele- 
boans, to avenge the death of his children ; in the mean time transfer- 
ring his government to his daughter Alemena and his nephew Amphi- 
tryon, with the promise that they should be united in marriage as soon 
as he should return victorious. He returned conqueror, bringing back 
the herds of which he had been deprived by his enemies. Amphitryon, 
now quite secure of his happiness, went joyfully forth to meet him ; 
but as one of the recovered cows strayed from the herd, he, with the 
intention of turning her back, threw a club at her, which unfortunately 
hit Electryon, who fell lifeless to the ground. 

This occurrence blighted his hopes of one day becoming king of 
Mycenae, for though the act was unintentional, it brought upon him 
the hatred of the people, and Sthenelos, the brother of the slain Elec- 
tryon, seized upon the royal crown of Mycenae, without resistance, and 
Amphitryon was compelled to flee to Thebes, whither Alemena followed 
him. Creon, who was at that time king of Thebes, took them under 
his protection. Alemena, however, refused to become Amphitryon's 
wife, until he had avenged the death of her brothers. Amphitryon 
accordingly entered into an alliance with Cephalos, Eleus, and several 
other neighboring princes, for the purpose of waging a new war against 
the inhabitants of the Taphian islands. Pterelaos was vanquished, and 



HERACLES OR HERCULES. 313 

Amphitryon divided the conquered islands among his allies ; the one 
of which, called in ancient times Gephalene, and in ours Cephaloniaj 
received its name from the above-mentioned Cephalos. 

Meanwhile, however, Alcmena's charms having attracted the Thun- 
derer, he assumed the form of Amphitryon returning as victor from 
his expedition and came down from Olympos to see her ; and was after- 
wards obliged to reveal his divinity to Amphitryon, in order to appease 
his anger against Alcmena. 

On the day in which Heracles was to be born, Jupiter boastingly 
spoke in the assembly of the gods, " I give you to understand, all ye 
gods and goddesses, that to-day a hero will be born, of a race of men 
who derive their origin from me. who is destined to reign over all his 
neighbors." Brooding artifices, the cunning Juno replied, ' : I shall, 
nevertheless, very much doubt the accomplishment of thy words, unless 
thou swear with the inviolable oath of the gods, that he, who to-day 
shall be born of the race of men that derive their origin from thee, will 
indeed reign over all his neighbors." Scarcely had Jupiter uttered 
the fatal oath, ere Juno left Olympos, and hastening to Argos. forward 
ed the birth of Eurystheus, and retarded that of Heracles : then, re- 
turning to Olympos, she thus triumphantly accosted Jupiter, " The 
hero who will rule over the Argives is already born ; he is descended 
from the race of men that sprang forth from thee ; for he is Eurystheus, 
a son of Sthenelos, whose father Perseus was thine offspring ; the pro- 
mised kingdom, therefore, is fallen to the lot of no unworthy one." 
(II. xix. 101.) 

The luckless father of the gods, not able to recall his oath, nor to 
avenge himself against the wily Juno, burst out in unspeakable wrath, 
and seizing the bright hand of Ate, the evil breeding power, who was 
his own daughter, and until now a member of the divine assembly, he 
hurled her from heaven to earth, swearing with a great oath, that she 
shoild never return to Olympos. Since that time, Ate hovers over 
the heads of mortal men, every where sowing dissensions, broils, and 
ruin. 

Alcmena became the mother of two sons ; Hercules, whose father 
was Jupiter, and Iphicles, the son of her husband Amphitryon. Which 
of these was the son of the Thunderer soon became evident. While 
the two children were cradled in a hollow buckler (a part of the booty 
which Amphitryon had taken in the war against Pterelaos), Juno sent 
two serpents to destroy Hercules; but the divine babe stifled them 



314 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 




with his infant hands. Jupiter then recognized his son; and finding 
Juno sleeping, laid Hercules by her side, who by this means obtained 
the divine milk without her consent. When Juno awoke, she flung 
far away from her the bold suckling, sprinkling upon the vault of the 
sky the milk that fell from her breast, the marks of which formed the 
galaxy or milky way, on which the gods walk. Fiction here becomes 
Oolossean, and the atmosphere through which the stars shine, appears 
therein as Juno's chief archetype. * 

At the command of Jupiter, Mercury committed Hercules to his 
tutors, who were to instruct him in warlike occupations, as well as in 
peaceful arts. Several of them were themselves sons of deities ; — Linus, 
the son of Apollo, taught him to play on the lyre, and Eumolpos to 
sing ; Castor taught him how to fight : Eurytos how to shoot with a 



HERACLES OR HERCULES. 315 

bow and arrows ; Autolicus to drive a chariot ; and like the rest of his 
illustrious contemporaries, he became the pupil of the wise Centaur, 
Cheiron, and under him, perfected his accomplishments, and made 
himself the most valiant of the age. 

When in pursuit of these occupations, Hercules one day betook him- 
self to a lonely spot, to muse undisturbed on his future life and fate ; 
and seating himself on a cross-way he sank into deep reflection. On 
this occasion two females appeared to him, the one of whom was Luxury 
and the other Virtue. Each endeavored to win the youth to her in- 
terest. Luxury, by promising him all the enjoyment of a cheerful, 
careless life, if he would follow her; Virtue, by announcing to bim 
troublesome and laborious days, but afterwards glory and immortality, 
if he would choose her for his guide in the path of life. " Thee will I 
follow; to thee devote my life," exclaimed the youth, with glowing 
heart, grasping at the same time the hand of Virtue ; and followed her 
with firm step, resolved to endure patiently every trial that awaited 
him, to bear every burdeD that should fall to his lot, and to shun no 
labor that should be appointed him, however difficult the task might be. 

Two of the most terrible children of Phorcys and Ceto were van- 
quished by Perseus and Bellerophon, but the greatest feats of valor, 
as well as merit, are reserved for Hercules, who is to conquer monsters, 
to subdue tyrants, and to set bounds to the injustice of the Thunderer 
himself, by delivering Prometheus from his torments, who was still 
suffering for the benefits which he had conferred upon mankind. The 
fate of Hercules was woven in the commencement of his life's thread 
by the inexorable Parc38. Born to be a ruler, he was forced by the 
power of the Fates to obey, and to achieve his most glorious actions at 
the command of one, who was in every respect his inferior, and whc 
dreaded the strength with which he was endowed. 

He was not permitted to live long in quiet at the house of his foster- 
father, Amphitryon ; for jealous Juno had infused into the heart of 
the latter dread, and suspicion against the young hero. Heracles was 
therefore sent by him to the court of Eurystheus, at Mycenae, where 
from time to time he was charged with the most difficult labors, and 
the most dangerous undertakings, which put his courage and firmness 
to the severest test. On his journey to Mycenae, he inquired of the 
oracle at Delphi concerning his future fate ; and received for answer, 
that twelve labors awaited him at the court of Eurystheus, after the 
performance of which, immortality should be his reward. For theso 



316 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

undertakings the favors of the gods had completely armed him. From 
Minerva, he received a coat of arms and a helmet ; from Mercury a 
sword ; from Neptune a horse ; from Jupiter a shield ; from Apollo a 
bow and arrows ; and from Yulcan, a golden cuirass and a brazen 
buskin. 

Eurystheus, seeing so powerful a man completely subjected to him, 
and apprehensive of such an enemy, commanded him to achieve the 
most difficult and arduous enterprises ever known ; generally called, 

THE TWELVE LABORS OP HERCULES. 

1st. The Nemcean Lion. — A monstrous lion, near the forest of Nemsea, 
whose hide no arrow could pierce, wasted the surrounding country and 
threatened destruction to the herds. The first of the twelve labors 
which Eurystheus commanded Hercules to perform was the subduing 
this beast of prey. The young hero did not fail to pursue the tracks 
of the lion, and to commence the fight as soon as he had found him ; 
and finding that iron was too weak to wound the monster, he flung his 
sinewy arms around his neck and strangled him. Hercules then carried 
the lion to Mycenae, but Eurystheus alarmed by this heroic feat, for- 
bade him henceforth to come within the walls of the city, at the same 
time ordering him to deliver at the gates an account of his future ex- 
ploits. 

In memory of this deed of valor, which was a pledge of the perform- 
ance of others, Hercules ever afterwards wore the skin of the lion 
around his shoulders, and it became, together with the club which he 
had cut from a knotty branch of the wild olive tree, the external mark 
of his extraordinary strength and invincible courage. 

2d. The Lerncean Hydra. — In the morasses of Lerna, near Argos, 
was the abode of that Hydra, with many heads, which has been already 
mentioned in the pedigree of the monsters, descendants of Phorcys 
and Ceto. The time of the heroes was death to them, who were one 
after another extirpated from the earth by the power of Jupiter's sons. 
Perseus had conquered Gorgo, and Bellerophon, the Chimaera ; and 
now, Hercules, at the command of Eurystheus, entered into the fearful 
struggle with the Lernaean Hydra. 

He attacked the monster with his sickle-shaped sword, but no sooner 
had he severed one head from the trunk than a new one immediately 
arose in its place. At last, when the utmost peril threatened the hero, 
he commanded his companion, Iolaus, the son of Iphicles, to burn with 



HERACLES OR HERCULES. 317 

a hot iron the root of the head which he had crushed with his club, 
before a new one could spring up. Thus the greatest danger being 
avoided, another presented itself : for Juno, to render victory to Her- 
cules difficult, if not impossible, sent a crab to gnaw at the heels of the 
hero while he was struggling with the monster. But this new enemy was 
soon dispatched, and the son of the Thunderer, after a long fight, drove 
the last head of the Hydra, which was invulnerable, into the ground, 
and covered it with an immense stone. As a reward for his labor, he 
dipped his arrows in the blood of the Hydra, which, by this fatal poison, 
became doubly dreadful, but which were destined to bring ruin on their 
possessor. 

Juno, unable to succeed in her attempts to lessen the fame of Her- 
cules, placed the crab among the constellations, where it is now called 
Cancer. 

If invincible courage and perseverance in surmounting innumerable 
obstacles, and ever renewed dangers, can be indicated by a striking 
emblem, it is in this fiction of Hercules' victory over the many headed 
monster. For this reason, ancient and modern poets have employed 
this fiction of Fancy, because it is impossible to substitute one more 
significant. 

3d. The Erymanthian Boar. — From the Erymanthian mountains, a 
monstrous boar descended, laying waste the fields of Arcadia. 

This afforded Eurystheus a wished for occasion to send Hercules on 
a new and dangerous expedition. To the conqueror of the Nemgean 
Lion and the many-headed Hydra, however, it was no difficult task to 
catch the boar alive and carry him to Eurystheus, who, terrified at the 
sight of the monster, concealed himself in a brazen butt. 

In this ridiculous position Eurystheus is represented upon an an- 
tique gem. The striking contrast of the strength and valor of the 
person who obeys, with the weakness and cowardice of the commander, 
gives to this fiction a more vivid interest. By the hero's conquering 
himself to obey, according to the will of Fate, his boldest deeds acquire 
the greater lustre. He first obtains the victory over himself, and then, 
by the command of an inferior, subdues the monsters. 

4th. The Slag of Diana. — In order to put to the proof the swiftness 
and agility of Hercules, he was in his fourth labor ordered to bring 
alive and unhurt into the presence of Eurystheus, the stag of Diana, 
famous for its swiftness, its golden horns, and brazen feet. 
. Hercules, accepting the task, pursued the tracks of this nimble an- 



318 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

imal during a whole year, and at last caught him in a thicket, and car- 
ried him on his shoulders to the gates of Mycenae. This celebrated 
stag frequented the neigborhood of Oenoe, and as Hercules was return- 
ing victorious, he met Diana, who snatched the stag from him with a 
severe reprimand for molesting an animal sacred to her. He pleaded 
necessity, and by representing the commands of Eurystheus, he appeas- 
ed the goddess, and obtained the stag. 

5th. The Stymphalides. — A kind of ghastly birds inhabited the Stvin- 
phalian lake, to which the imagination of the poets ascribes the most 
frightful aspect. They were represented as furnished with claws and 
bills of brass, enabling them to pierce any armor, and according to 
several fictions, were armed with darts, which they flung at their aggres- 
sors. 

These monsters, which Eurystheus commanded Hercules to destroy, 
had taken up their abode in the deep recesses of an inaccessible morass. 
And here the divine hero would have been at a loss, notwithstanding 
his strength and courage, but for the aid of Minerva, who wished him 
success, and gave him a rattle of brass, the noise of which frightened 
the birds from their haunts, driving them into the air, where Hercules 
easily dispatched them with his arrows 

6th. Augias 1 Stables. — Augias, a king in Elis, and called a child of 
the sun, from the immense number of flocks and herds which he pos- 
sessed, was one of the wealthiest princes of his time. In those ages. a 
man's wealth was estimated in proportion to the abundance of his cattle ; 
and the occupations required by possessions of this kind were not de- 
grading ; neither was it considered disgraceful to clean a stable. 

According to the tale of antiquity, Augias had three thousand oxen 
in his stables, which had not been cleansed for thirty years, so that at 
last it seemed an impossibility to clear them of the prodigious accumu- 
lation. But Hercules, at the command of Eurystheus, undertook the 
enormous task, which was to be accomplished in the space of a few 
days. Augias, who doubted the possibility of the performance, prom- 
ised Hercules, as a reward, the tenth part of his herds. 

By turning the course of the river Alpheus through the stables, 
Hercules completed the task in one day. After the work was done, 
Augias withheld the promised reward, on the pretext that Hercules 
had made use of artifice ; and the son of Alcmena, enraged at this 
faithlessness, made war upon him, and having conquered and killed 
him, proclaimed his son Phyleus his successor upon the throne. 






HERACLES OR HERCULES. 319 

Out of the treasures which he gained in this war, he built a temple 
in honor of Olympian Jupiter, and renewed the Olympic games. 

7th. The Cretan Bull. — Neptune, being angry at the inhabitants of 
Crete, because they were deficient in their veneration for him, sent 
into the island a furious bull, which exhaled fire from his nostrils, and 
as no one would venture to approach him, laid waste the country. 

Scarcely had Eurystheus heard of this, ere he imposed on Hercules 
the new task of catching the beast alive. Hercules, whose bodily 
strength measured itself as it were with the whole animal world, sub- 
dued the bull sent by Neptune, and carried him on his shoulders to 
Mycenae. 

8th. The Horses of Diomedcs. — Diomedes, a king of Thrace, and son 
of Mars, had in his possession four fire-vomiting horses, which were 
fed by him with human flesh. All strangers who fell into the hands 
of this barbarian, were thrown to his horses to be torn and devoured. 

The report of this cruelty having spread every where, Eurystheus com- 
manded Hercules to bring to him the fire-vomiting steeds. The hero 
obeyed, overpowered Diomedes, and by throwing him to the car- 
nivorous beasts, made him suffer the just punishment of his cruelty. 

Ill treatment of strangers is, in the fictions of the ancients, with 
whom the rites of hospitality were sacred above all other considera- 
tions, the surest mark of malicious tyranny and injustice ; and the 
more so, in proportion as it assumes the garb of cruelty. Those ty- 
rants who could torment or kill strangers, were regarded as monsters, 
and it was the task of the divine heroes to exterminate them from the 
earth. 

The representation of the horses of Diomedes is found upon ancient 
monuments of art, as they are standing before a manger, in which the 
body of a human being lies extended. The cruel monster stands by, 
gloating his eyes, as it were, on the sight. 

9th. The Girdle of the Queen of the Amazons. — Bellerophon was com- 
pelled to fight against the Amazons, and Eurystheus did not fail to 
charge Hercules with the same dangerous enterprise. 

The precious girdle worn by the queen of the Amazons, and which 
Hercules was to win, was a present from the god of war, and defended 
as it was by fortitude and bravery, it could only be obtained by invin- 
cible courage. 

In this expedition, Hercules was accompanied by Theseus, and at the 
river Thermodon the fight commenced, in which the Amazons with 



320 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

their allies were vanquished, and the queen herself- taken prisoner. 
Hercules, after having on his way accomplished several other bold 
feats, returned to Mycense, and presented the girdle to Eurystheus. 

10th. The Triple-bodied Geryon. — Geryon, the savage monarch of 
three islands, situated in the dusky west of the ancient world, has, 
already been mentioned in the pedigree of the monsters. 

He was in possession of what, in times of antiquity, was considered 
the greatest treasure ; and the fame of Geryon's oxen had spread so 
far, as to induce Eurystheus to impose upon Hercules the commission 
of leading them away from their pastures, and bringing them as a war- 
like treasure from the remotest bounds of the earth to Mycenae. 

Hercules made his way over mountains and rocks, performing on 
this expedition many other great exploits. After having overcome the 
two-headed dog, which guarded the herds, as well as Eurytion the 
herdsman, he took possession of Geryon's oxen. The triple-bodied 
monster then rushed upon him, but was killed by Hercules with his club. 

llth. The Golden Apples of the Hesperides. — The greatest treasure 
which imagination transferred to the widest distance, and which was 
thought to be altogether unattainable, was the golden apples in the gar- 
dens of the Hesperides. These gardens were watched by a monstrous 
dragon, and to bring the golden fruit to Eurystheus, was one of the 
tasks which Hercules was to accomplish in obedience to the command 
of another. 

The hero, ignorant of the situation of these celebrated gardens, ap- 
plied to the nymphs in the neighborhood of the Po for information ; 
and was told that Nereus, if properly managed, would direct him in 
the pursuit. Hercules seized Nereus as he was sleeping, and the sea- 
god, unable to escape from his grasp, answered all the questions that 
he proposed. 

After reaching the gardens, Hercules gave the dragon a potion which 
threw him into a deep sleep ; he then succeeded in killing him, gather- 
ed the apples, and returned in triumph to Eurystheus. They were 
afterwards carried back to the gardens by Minerva, as they could be 
preserved in no other place. 

In the representations of Hercules, the tree which bore the golden 
fruit is also to be seen : the dragon coils itself around it, and Hercu- 
les stands before him with the cup that contains the somniferous po- 
tion. The Hesperides stand by, lamenting the loss of their treasure, 
which they had heretofore so carefully preserved. 



HERACLES OR HERCULES. 



321 



12th. Cerberus.dhe 
Watch-dog of Orcus.- 
Hercules had now 
given eleven proofs 
of the strength and 
agility of his body, 
as well as the great- 
ness of his soul ; the 
last only remained. 
He had not done 
enough in conquer- 
ing the monsters of 
the higher world. — 
Eurystheus also com- 
manded him to de- 
scend into the world 
of shades, and drag 
to the light of day 
the triple-headed dog 
Cerberus, that watch- 
ed the gates of Pluto. 
The hero is thus com- 
manded to brave 
Death himself in his own dominions — to descend into the open gulf 
that leads to his territories, and to contend in direful fight with the 
king of terrors. 

Before Hercules went on his way to the lower world, he was initiated 
in the Eleusinian mysteries, to be as it were prepared for any event, 
whether life or death : he then boldly entered the cavern at the Prom- 
ontory of Taenarus, which led to the abode of the shades. He com- 
pelled Charon to row him across the Styx, and when reaching the op- 
posite shore, he first beheld the three-headed dog Cerberus, and ther 
chained to a rock, two well-known heroes, Theseus and Pirithoos, who 
had ventured to descend into Orcus, with the intention of delivering 
Proserpine, the Queen of the dead, from Pluto's dominions. They 
were overpowered, fastened to an enchanted rock, and doomed never 
again to see the light of the sun. 

Hercules, nevertheless, succeeded in delivering Theseus. Fiction 
says, that when Hercules was pursuing Cerberus, whose fierceness was 

21 




322 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



broken after a desperate struggle, and who was now flying with anxious 
wailings to the palace of Pluto, the chaplet of mallow leaves which he 
wore upon his head turned black. Hercules fought with Pluto himself; 
seized upon the triple-headed watch-dog of his dominions, loosened 
Theseus' bonds, and hastened out of the land of terrors. He had also 
endeavored to free Pirithoos from his fetters, but in vain, for Pluto 
defended his prey with his whole power. 

Hercules brought Cerberus in triumph to the upper world. The 
terrified Eurystheus could not bear the sight of the monster, and Her- 
cules, after having kept him tamed between his knees, delivered him 
from the pain of beholding the light of day, and the black monster 
slunk back to the lower world to resume his watch at its gates. 

These are the proofs which Hercules gave of his strength, his perse- 
verance, invincible courage, and patient submission to the decrees of 
Fate, in performing the most difficult tasks at the command of an in- 
ferior. But besides these labors imposed upon him by Eurystheus, he 
voluntarily achieved other deeds of valor, not less glorious, equally cel- 
ebrated, and perhaps of higher merit. 



1st. The Rescue of Hesione. — Hercules was the companion of the 
Argonauts in their expedition to Colchis, but he separated himself from 
them, and went on shore near the city of Troy, to seek for his friend 
Hylas, who had left the ship for water, and had not returned. In vain 
fras the cry of the hero, Hylas ! Hylas ! for the Naiades had drawn 
him into the well. The whole shore echoed the name of Hylas, but 
Hylas did not return. 

When Hercules found that his search was fruitless, he proceeded on 
his way to Troy, where, at that time, Laomedon was king ; who, when 
Neptune and Apollo had condescended to build a wall round the city, 
had cheated them of their wages. His crime did not remain long un- 
punished. The ruler of the waves threatened ruin to the city of Troy 
by an inundation, and according to the sentence of the oracle, could 
not be appeased, unless Laomedon would sacrifice his daughter Hesione. 
Like Andromeda, she also was fastened to a rock on the sea-shore, to 
become the prey of a sea monster, when Hercules happened to arrive 
there, and beheld the mournful spectacle. 

He instantly offered to deliver Hesione from the cruel death that 
awaited her ; but not so generous as Perseus, he demanded as a re- 
ward, six beautiful horses — a demand to which Laomedon, the father 



HERACLES OR HERCULES 323 

of the unfortunate victim, readily agreed. But a man who had always 
been faithless to the gods, felt no scruples at deceiving Hercules ; and 
after the monster was killed, and his daughter set at liberty, he refused 
to reward the hero's services. Hercules, incensed at his treachery, 
besieged Troy and put the king and all his family to the sword, except 
Podarces. or Priam, who had advised his father to give the promised 
horses to his sister's deliverer. 

The conqueror gave Hesione in marriage to his friend Telamon, who 
had assisted him during the war, and established Priam upon his fa- 
ther's throne. The removal of Hesione to Greece proved fatal to the 
Trojans. Priam remembered with indignation, that his sister had 
been forcibly given to a foreigner, and sent his son Paris to Greece, 
to reclaim Hesione, or more probably to revenge himself upon the 
Greeks by carrying away Helena, which gave rise soon after to the 
Trojan war. Priam lived to see the future melancholy fate of Troy, 
together with the ruin of his royal house, then already determined by 
the decree of Fate. 

2d. The. Victory over Antceos, Busiris, and Cacus. — When Hercules 
arrived in Libya, on his expedition to the west, he met with the giant 
Antseos, son of Neptune and Terra. 

Antaeos forced all strangers who came within his reach to wrestle 
with him, and after having conquered them set up' their skulls and 
bones around his dwelling as so many trophies, and boasted that he 
would erect a temple to his father with the skulls of his conquered an- 
tagonists. Hercules attacked him ; and having long tried his strength 
on him without success, at last became aware of his rising with renewed 
force and spirit, as often as he threw him upon his mother earth. He 
therefore raised him up in his mighty arms, as high as he could in the 
air, and squeezed him till he breathed his last. In this situation hold- 
ing his foe above the ground, Hercules is often found represented upon 
ancient monuments. 

Busiris, a king of Egypt, son of Neptune and Libya, sacrificed all 
foreigners to Jupiter with the greatest cruelty. "When Hercules visited 
Egypt, Busiris carried him to the altar bound hand and foot. The 
hero soon disentangled himself, and offered the tyrant, with the minis- 
ters of his cruelty, on the altar. 



324 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Cacus, a famous robber, was a son of Yulcan and Medusa, and rep* 
resented as a three-headed monster, vomiting flames. He resided in 
Italy, and the avenues to his caves were covered with human bones. 
He plundered the neighboring country ; and when Hercules returned 
from the conquest of Greryon, Cacus stole some of his cows while he was 
sleeping, and dragged them backwards into his cave to prevent dis- 
covery. Hercules departed without perceiving the theft, but his oxen 
having lowed, were answered by the cows in the caves of Cacus, and 
the hero became aware of the loss that he had sustained. He ran to the 
place, attacked Cacus, squeezed and strangled him in his arms, though 
vomiting fire and smoke. In commemoration of his victory, Hercules 
erected an altar to Jupiter Servator ; and an annual festival was insti- 
tuted by the inhabitants in honor of the hero who had delivered them 
from such a public calamity. 

Carmenta, the mother of Evander, who was then reigning over that 
country, presaged the apotheosis of Hercules, and here, in his life-time, 
the first altar was erected to him. 

The representation of Hercules sleeping near his herds, while Cacus 
drags the oxen backwards into his caverns, is still to be found upon 
ancient gems. 

3d. The Deliverance of Alceste from Orcus. — Hercules, who destroyed 
the tyrants that treated strangers with cruelty, was himself sensible of 
the benefits of hospitality, showing this sensibility in a noble manner 
towards king Admetos, in Thessaly. 

Admetos was married to Alcestis, a daughter of king Pelias. Ad- 
metos fell sick ; and according to the oracle, his life could not be saved, 
unless some one should be found who would voluntarily sacrifice his 
own life in his stead, and Alcestis secretly oiFered herself to the gods 
as a substitute for her husband. She in her turn fell sick, and in pro- 
portion as her illness increased, her husband's health was restored ; 
and when Hercules entered, as a guest, the hospitable mansion of Ad- 
metos, she was dead. 

The rites of hospitality were so sacred with the king/ak to induce 
him at first to conceal his mourning in the presence of Hercules; but 
when the latter heard of Alcestis' tragical end, he promised his friend 
to bring back his beloved wife from Orcus, cost what it would. 

And now Hercules embraced with his mighty arms even Death, and 
held him fast, until he had restored to his friend the companion of his 



HERACLES OR HERCULES. 325 

bosom ; and grief was changed into new wedding joys, and delightful 
conversations. 

4th. The Deliverance of Prometheus. — In Hercules, humanity had 
risen, as it were, to her highest glory ; as formerly in Prometheus it 
had sunk to the depth of humiliation. The torments of this sufferer, 
in whose bowels the vulture had been gnawing for centuries, now ap- 
proached their termination : Hercules was to become his deliverer. 

Jupiter himself gave consent to his deliverance, after Prometheus 
had revealed to him the prophecy, which had long been concealed, that 
Thetis would bear a son who should be mightier than his father 

Through this revelation by the former and father of men, the power 
of Jupiter was a second time saved from the superiority of a mightier 
one, the Thunderer having entertained thoughts of marrying Thetis 

Hercules killed the vulture by shooting him with his bow, and the 
bands with which Prometheus had been fastened to the rock fell from 
his limbs. 

5 th. The Erection of the Pillars at the Straits between Europe and 
Africa. — The fictions of the deeds of Hercules become at last colossean, 
losing themselves in the idea of a power, which neither men nor gods 
are able to resist. 

When Apollo refused giving him an oracle, he took away Pythia's 
golden tripod, until the god had complied with his demand. The ce- 
lestials complain that he once wounded Juno, and that he spared not 
Pluto with his arrows. 

When on his expedition to the west, the sun one day emitted too 
vehement a heat ; he drew his bow and shot an arrow at the driver of 
the chariot, who endeavored to reconcile him by presenting him with a 
golden drinking cup. On Neptune's sending a storm, he aimed at him 
with his arrows, and the king of the waters, to calm the hero's wrath, 
stilled the winds, and the waves bore on their surface that drinking 
vessel of gold, which, from its immense size, was used by Hercules as 
a bark, without apprehension of sinking, for the floods and their ruler 
were both submissive to him. 

On his expedition to the west, having reached the remotest ends of 
the earth, he broke through the isthmus between Europe and Africa, 
thus uniting the Atlantic ocean with the Mediterranean sea. There, 
as a token of the exploits which he had performed, and as a mark of 



326 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



the termination of his wanderings, he erected two pillars upon the op- 
posite mountains, Calpe and Abyla, which posterity called the pillars 
of Hercules. It is impossible for imagination to soar higher than in 
these pictures : for where, according to the ideas of the ancients, earth 
herself has her bounds — where the sun sinks into the sea — there, and 
there only, was the heroic course of Hercules to terminate. Only one 
stroke is yet wanting in the stupendous picture. It is this ; he who 
delivered Prometheus from his protracted sufferings released Atlas 
also for a time from the burden that eternally pressed upon his shoul- 
ders, by taking the sky upon his own back, and thus procuring a tem- 
porary rest for the son of Iapetos. 

In this posture, bearing the celestial globe upon his shoulders, Her 
cules is represented upon some ancient monuments. 

The foregoing tales contain the most eminent of Hercules' exploits. 
In addition to those notions already mentioned, the ancients ascribe to 
him many more ; every undertaking or performance for which perse- 
verance, heroism, and strength are requisite, is easily associated with 
that name which at once denoted whatever of god-like displays itself 
on earth in bodily strength and valor. 

If, however, in any divine or heroic being, the idea of corporeal 
strength and undaunted courage predominates, it certainly is in the 
person of Heracles. Always indefatigably pursuing some object, re- 
gardless of what is standing or sinking around him, he represents, as 
it were, Humanity awakened from her first slumbers, feeling herself in 
her entire strength, and acting without any idle deliberation. 

The idea of a hero in the minds of the ancients was generally not 
connected with that of a sage. Even in the person of Ulysses, wisdom 
assumes the garb of craftiness, and in that of Nestor, heroism is already 
lamed by old age. With the heroes, much light is mingled with the 
shade, and the common saying, founded upon what is constantly ob- 
served, " the greater the man the greater his shadow," finds with them 
its proper application. Heracles must pay the penalty of his invincible 
courage by many foibles, errors, and crimes. In his different marriages 
he found his misfortunes, and at last a painful death. 

His first marriage was with Megara, the daughter of Creon, prince 
of Thebes, who was given to him by her father out of gratitude for 
having freed the city from a burdensome tribute, which had been ex- 
acted by the Orchcmenians. After Megara had presented him with 



HERACLES OR HERCULES. 32? 

four sons, he is said to have been driven distracted by Juno, and in a 
fit cf frenzy to have slain both mother and children. In their memory 
obsequies were annually celebrated at Thebes. 

In order to expiate this horrible deed, although it was not perpe- 
trated with design, Heracles the more readily submitted to the labors 
imposed upon him by Eurystheus ; but when he had nearly completed 
his tasks, he was enchained by a new love, and married again, notwith- 
standing the tragical end of his first nuptials. 

Upon one of his expeditions he came to king (Eneus, at Calydon, 
in .ZEtolia, where he saw the beautiful Deianeira, the royal daughter, 
who was the afiianced bride of the river-god, Acheloos. Hercules 
engaged in battle with him, and Deianeira was the prize of his victory. 
The hero then proceeded on his way, accompanied by his wife. When 
they arrived at the river Euenus, on the banks of which Nessos, the 
Centaur, had his dwelling, Heracles committed to him the charge of 
carrying Deianeira on his back through the river. The Centaur com- 
plied the more willingly with the request of one in whose mouth a request 
amounted to a command, because he harbored the secret intention of 
depriving Heracles of his wife. Accordingly, when he reached the 
other bank of the river with his fair burden, he galloped off; but hear- 
ing Deianeira's cries for assistance, Heracles bent his bow, and sent 
through the faithless Centaur one of those arrows which had been 
dipped in the poisonous blood of the Lernsean Hydra. Nessos, brood- 
ing revenge at the very moment of his death, handed to Deianeira a 
flask filled with his blood, beseeching her to keep it as a precious gift, 
by means of which she could secure to herself the attachment of her 
husband, as well as banish every other love from his breast, by rubbing 
the blood on the garment which he wore next his body. 

Heracles, pursuing his adventures, was obliged to separate himself 
from time to time from Deianeira. On one occasion his absence was 
unusually long ; he was rambling in foreign regions without giving 
her any account of himself. A new love, which afterwards afflicted 
him deeper than any event of his life, because it misled him to an act 
of injustice, kept him in bonds. Before his marrage with Deianeira, 
Heracles had seen Iole, the daughter of king Eurytos, who reigned 
over (Echalia, in Euboea, and was conquered by her charms. He sued 
for her hand from her father, but met with a refusal, at which he was 
angry, and left the house of his host, meditating revenge. And soon 
after, when Iphitos, the son of Eurytos, came to Heracles in quest of 



328 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

his strayed horses, which the hero himself kept concealed, Heracles 
conducted the son of his host to the rocky walls of Tyrins. and sud - 
denly pitched him from the steep height. 

By this deed Heracles stained his glory, and was, by the command 
of the gods, compelled to atone for it in a humiliating manner. He 
must suffer himself to be sold as a slave to the voluptuous queen 
Omphale, in Lydia, at whose command he was obliged to do female 
work. 

Plastic art represents Omphale wearing the skin of the Neinsean 
lion round her shoulders, and holding the club in her hand, while 
Heracles is seen in a female dress, sitting at the distaff and spinning. 
The hero, who had already completed his heroic course, must never- 
theless become sensible of the lot of mortals, before he could take his 
seat in the assembly of the celestials, sinking down from his greatness 
in proportion to the height of his former elevation. 

The fixed period of his servitude in Lydia having expired, Heracles 
made war upon Eurytos, because of his having refused him his daugh- 
ter ; and carrying the city (Echalia by assault, he destroyed it, slew 
the king himself, and sent his daughter Iole as a slave to Deianeira, by 
whom she was received with kindness. 

Understanding, however, that this very captive was her rival, she 
thought it was time to make use of the gift of Nessos. Accordingly, 
she took the long-preserved blood of the Centaur, and having rubbed 
with it a splendid tunic, she sent it to her husband by her servant 
Lichas, with the request not to wear the garment until he should have 
occasion to show himself finely dressed to the immortals at a sacred 
festival. 

Heracles had long since received the oracle, that his death was not 
to be apprehended from a living being, but from a dead one. The ful- 
filment of this prediction was now drawing nigh. 

After his victory over Eurytos, Heracles erected an altar to Jupiter 
upon the promontory of Censeum, in Euboea, and was about to kill the 
victims, when Lichas appeared, bringing with him Deianeira's present. 
The hero was the more rejoiced at the gift, because it arrived at so 
seasonable a time. Instantly arraying himself in the costly attire, he 
presented a hecatomb to the immortals, and made the flames blaze 
from the altars to the sky. Suddenly his newly-received tunic ad- 
hered to his body as if glued to it, and convulsions seized all his limbs. 
It was the poison of the Hydra, mingled with the blood of Nessos. 



HERACLES OR HERCULES. 



329 



which penetrated his body, and was now consuming the very marrow 
of his bones. 

Suffering unspeakable pain, he called the unfortunate Lichas, who 
had brought him the garment, and hurled him against a rock with 
such force that his skull and bones were crushed to pieces. In the 
midst of his tortures the hero was carried to the city of Trachinia, in 
Thessaly. The unhappy Deianeira no sooner heard of the dreadful 
effect of her present than she put an end to her life. 

Hyllos, the son of Heracles and Deianeira, assisting his father in his 
torments, at his command carried him to mount (Eta, where Heracles 
resolved to put an end to his sufferings by a voluntary death. On 
Mount (Eta a pile of wood was erected and kindled ; it was the funeral 
pile of Heracles. After having recommended to his son Hyllos his 
much-loved Iole, and given to Philoctetes, the son of Pceas, and his 
faithful companion, his bow and arrows as an inheritance, the hero 
ascended his fatal death-bed. 

There, surrounded by the blazing flames, his face became resplendent. 
Heracles had finished the sufferings of humanity, and atoned for her 
foibles ; his mortal covering, subject to pains and distress, fell off; his 
shade went down to Orcus, but he himself rose to Olympos, and was 
received into the assembly of the immortals. Juno was reconciled, 
and Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth, became, according to the decree 
of Fate, the spouse of the new deity. 

Owing to the richness of Heracles' history, we find the Hero repre- 
sented in many different attitudes. In a G-erman cabinet already men- 
tioned, two antique gems are preserved ; one represents him as a youth. 
in the act of choking the Nemaean lion, and the other as he is resting 
from his labors, after having completed his course. He is sitting as 
if in profound meditation, drawing, with his right hand, unconsciously, 
as it were, a part of his lion skin round his thigh, and with his left 
leaning upon his club ; before him an old, withered olive-trunk, with a 
new, flourishing shoot, is to be seen, from which his bow and quiver 
are suspended. 

Heracles, according to the theory of Dupuis and others, is the Sun, 
and his twelve labors are a figurative representation of the annual 
course of that luminary through the signs of the zodiac. He is the 
powerful planet which animates and imparts fecundity to the universe : 
whose divinity has been honored in everv quarter of the globe, by tern 




330 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

pies and altars, and consecrated in the religious theories of all nations; 
from Meroe in Ethiopia, and Thebes, in Upper Egypt, even to Britain 
and the very regions of Scythia ; from the ancient Taprobana to Pali- 
bothra, in India, to Cadiz, and the shores of the Atlantic ; from the 
forests of Germany to the burning sands of Africa ; and wherever the 
benefits of the luminary of day are experienced, there we find estab- 
lished the name and worship of a Heracles. 

According to Plutarch the Egyptians supposed Heracles to have his 
seat in the sun, and that he travelled with it around the moon ; and 
the author of the Orphic Hymns calls Heracles the god who produced 
time ; whose forms vary ; the father of all, and the destroyer of all ; 
the god who by turns brings back Aurora and the night, and who, 
moving onward from east to west, runs through the career of his twelve 
labors ; the valiant Titan, who chases away maladies, and delivers man 
from the evils which afflict hi hi 

The Phoenicians, jfc is said, preserved a tradition that Heracles was 
the Sun, and ^bat h\a twelve labors indicated the Sun's passage through 
the twelve sign?. Porphyry, who was born in Phoenicia, says, that 
they there gave the m.ime of Heracles to the Sun, and that the fable 
of his twelve labors represents the annual path of the Sun in the heavens. 
The scholiast on Hesiod remarks, that "the zodiac, in which the sun 
performs his annual course, is the career which Heracles traverses, in 
the fable of his twelve labors ; and his marriage with Hebe, the goddess 
of youth, whom he ^spoused after they were ended, denotes the renewal 
of the year." 

To illustrate thf fable of his labors (altering the order in which they 
are usually givon], let us suppose the sun to commence his annual 
course at the pv/j.mer solstice, which was indeed considered as the 
opening of the far, by different ancient nations. 

In the first iuonth the sun passes into the sign Leo. The first labor 
of Hercules was the slaying of the Nemsean lion. In the second month 
the sun enters Hydra. The second labor of Hercules was the killing 
of the Hydra, or dragon of many heads. The constellation Hydra is 
peculiar for its length. Its head rises with Cancer ; its body extends 
under the sign Leo, and only ends at the later degrees of the sign 
Virgo. Hence the fable of the continual re-appearance of the heads 
of the monster whom Hercules slew. In the third month the sun 
enters the sign Libra, when the constellation of Centaur rises, repre- 
sented as bearing a wine-skin full of liquor, and a thyrsus adorned 



HERACLES OR HERCULES. 331 

with vine-leaves and grapes. Bayer represents him with a thyrsus in 
one hand, and a flask of wine in the other ; and the Alphonsine tables, 
with a goblet in his hand. At this same period, what, by some, is 
termed the constellation of the Boar rises. In his third labor, Her- 
cules, after being hospitably entertained by a Centaur, encountered 
and slew the. other Centaurs, who fought for a cask of wine. He slew 
also the Erymanthian Boar. In the fourth month the sun enters 
Scorpio, when Cassiopeia rises, who was represented, anciently, by a 
stag. In his fourth labor, Hercules caught the famous stag with golden 
horns and brazen feet, and breathing fire from its nostrils ; aptly rep- 
resenting a constellation studded with blazing stars, and which unites 
itself with the solstitial fires of the sun. In the fifth month, the sun 
enters Sagittarius (the archer), when also appear the constellations of 
the vulture, swan, and eagle. In his fifth labor, Hercules destroyed, 
with arrows, the three birds near the lake Stymphalus. In the sixth 
month, the sun enters Capricornus, said to be a grandson of the lumin- 
ary. At this period, the stream which flows from Aquarius sets. Its 
source is between the hands of Aristaeus, son of the river Peneus. In 
his sixth labor, Hercules cleansed, by means of the river Peneus, the 
stables of Augias, son of Phoebus. In the seventh month, the sun 
enters the sign Aquarius ; the constellation of the Lyre, or Vulture, 
sets, which is by the side of the constellation Prometheus ; and the 
celestial bull, the bull of Pasiphae, or of Marathon, or of Europa, 
passes the meridian. In his seventh labor, Hercules brought alive, 
into the Peloponnesus, a wild bull which laid waste the island of 
Crete. He also slew the vulture which preyed upon the liver of Pro- 
metheus. It should be observed that the constellation of the Vulture 
sets, and that the Vulture was killed; that the constellation of the bull 
crosses the meridian merely, and that Hercules brought his bull to Greece 
alive. In the eighth month, the sun enters Pisces, and the celestial 
horse Pegasus, or Arion, rises. Hercules, in his eighth labor, over- 
came and carried off the horses of Diomedes. In the ninth month the 
Bun enters the sign Aries (sacred to Mars), the same with the ram of 
the golden fleece ; the celestial ship Argo rises ; Cassiopeia and An- 
dromeda set ; Andromeda is remarkable for its many beautiful stars, 
one of which is called her girdle. In his ninth labor, Hercules em 
barked on board the Argo in quest of the golden fleece ; contended 
with female warriors, and took from their queen. Hippolyta, the daugh- 
ter of Mars, a famous girdle. In the tenth month, the sun enters 



332 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Taurus ; the constellation Orion, fabled to have pursued the Pleiades, 
daughters of Atlas : the conductor of the oxen of Icarus, and the river 
Eridanus, also ; the Pleiades rise, and the she-goat, fabled to have been 
the spouse of Faunus. The tenth labor of Hercules was restoring from 
pirates, employed by Busiris. the seven Pleiades to their father ; slay- 
ing Busiris, the same as Orion ; bearing away the oxen of Greryon, and 
vanquishing Cacus. In the eleventh month, the sun passes into the 
sign of Gemini ; Procyon sets ; the Dog-star rises, and the swan. In 
his eleventh labor, Hercules conquered the Dog Cerberus, and tri- 
umphed over Cycnus (Swan), at the time when the dog-star's influence 
is felt upon the fields. 

In the twelfth month the sun enters the sign Cancer, the last of the 
twelve, commencing with Leo. The constellations of the river and the 
Centaur set, that of Hercules Ingeniculus also descends towards the 
western regions, or those of Hesperia, followed by the dragon of the 
pole, the guardian of the golden apples of the Hesperides, whose head 
hie crushes with his foot. In his twelfth labor, Hercules travelled to 
Hesperia in quest of the golden fruit, guarded by the dragon. After 
this, he offers up a sacrifice, and clothes himself in a robe dipped in 
the blood of the Centaur, whom he had slain in crossing a river. The 
robe takes fire, and the hero perishes amid the flames, but only to re- 
sume his youth in the heavens, and become a partaker of immortality. 

The Centaur thus terminates the mortal career of Hercules ; and in 
like manner the new annual period commences with the passage of the 
sun into Leo, marked by a group of stars in the morning that glitter 
like the flames that issued from the vestment of Nessos. 

If we regard Hercules as having actually existed, nothing can be 
more monstrous, nothing more at variance with every principle of chro- 
nology, nothing more replete with contradictions, than the adventures 
of such an individual as poetry makes him to have been. But, consid 
ered as the luminary that gives life and light to the world, as the god 
who impregnates all nature with his fertilizing rays, every part of the 
legend teems with animation and beauty, and is marked by a pleasing 
and perfect harmony. The sun of the summer solstice is here repre 
sented with all the attributes of that divine strength which he has 
acquired at this season of the year. He enters proudly on his course 
in obedience to the eternal order of nature. It is no longer the sign 
Leo that he traverses ; he combats a fearful lion that ravages the plains. 
The Hydra is the second monster that opposes the hero, and the con- 



DIONYSOS OR BACCHUS. 333 

stellation in the heavens becomes a terrible animal on earth, to which 
the laDguage of poetry assigns a hundred heads, with the power of re- 
producing them as soon as they are crushed by the weapon of the hero. 
All obstacles that array themselves against the illustrious champion 
are gifted with some quality or attribute that exceeds the bounds of 
nature ; the horses of Diomedes feed on human flesh ; the females rise 
above the timidity of their sex, and become formidable heroines ; the 
apples of the Hesperides are of gold ; the stag has brazen hoofs ; the 
dog of Hades bristles with serpents ; every thing, even down to the 
crab, is formidable ; for every thing in nature is great, and must there- 
fore, be equally so in the various symbols that are used to designate 
her various powers. 

Heracles, with Omphale, is the solar god descended into the Ompha- 
los, or navel of the world, amid the signs of the southern hemisphere ; 
and it was the festival of this powerful star, in some degree enervated 
at the period of the winter solstice, which the Lydian people celebrated 
by the change of vestments made between the weaker and stronger sex. 

The fable of his protracted birth already announces the god of light, 
struggling against the powers of darkness. Long did Hera put every 
obstacle in the way of it, and this hostile power, after persecuting the 
mother, persecutes the son, and her obstinate hatred becomes the means 
by which the divine power of his nature is developed in all its splendor, 

DIONYSOS OR BACCHUS.* 

Dionysos and Heracles, although born of mortal mothers, are asso- 
ciated in the assembly of the immortal gods. Yet, Dionysos is by far 
the higher, the more divine person. From the beginning, the plenitude 
of his being is revealed ; and from his very birth, he is ranked among 
the celestials, while Heracles, by bold deeds and invincible valor, must 
prepare himself the path to immortality. For this reason, too, the 
latter, during his life-time, was ranked only among the god-like heroes ; 
while Dionysos was always entitled to the society of the gods. 

The archetype of Dionysos (the reproductive force of nature, of 
which wine is the symbol) was the inward swelling fulness of nature, 
typified in the foaming cup, from which she bestows animating enjoy- 



* He was called Bacchus both by the Greeks and Romans ; that is, the noisy or riot- 
ous god. It was originally a mere epithet or surname of Dionysos, and does not occu: 
till after the time of Herodotus. 



334 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

nient on the initiated. The worship of Dionysos, therefore, like that 
of Demeter, was mysterious ; for both deities are the emblems of the 
whole of nature, which no mortal eye penetrates. 

The fiction of the birth of Dionysos contains a deep meaning. The 
jealous Hera, appearing to his mother in the character of an old woman, 
instigated the daughter of Cadmos to express the extravagant wish of 
enjoying Zeus in his divine character. Semele accordingly, first de- 
sired the Thunderer to swear compliance to the request she was about 
to make to him, and when he had taken the oath, she demanded that 
he should appear to her in his true, divine person. Zeus, not daring 
to break the terrible oath by Styx, was compelled to approach her by 
thunder and lightning. The wretched Semele, killed by the thunder, 
and consumed by the lightning, fell a sacrifice to her rash request. 
Zeus snatched from her his son Dionysos, yet unborn, and placed him 
in his thigh, where he remained till the regular time of his birth. Mor- 
tality is destroyed ere immortality rises. Man, during his life-time on 
earth, not being able to bear the glory of divinity, is annihilated by its 
terrible majesty. 

At the birth of the child, Zeus gave him the name of Dionysos, and 
sent him by Hermes to Ino, sister to Semele, with directions to rear 
him ; but Hera, whose revenge was not yet satiated, caused Athamas, 
the husband of Ino, to go mad. Zeus, to save Dionysos from the ma- 
chinations of Hera, changed him into a kid, under which form Hermes 
conveyed him to the nymphs of Nysa, who were to take charge of his 
education, and by whom he was reared with the greatest tenderness. 

In his boyhood, Dionysos, as if yet half reeling in sweet slumber, 
does not comprehend the fulness of his being, and appears apprehensive 
of injuries inflicted by men, until his formidable power suddenly re- 
veals itself through miraculous events. Lycurgus, king of the Edones, 
a people of Thrace, surprised the nurses of Dionysos on Mount Nysa, 
and wounded several of them. The terrified Dionysos threw himself 
into the sea, when Thetis took him up in her arms ; but he avenged 
himself by driving Lycurgus mad. when he killed his own son, Dryas, 
with a blow of an axe, mistaking him for a vine-branch His subjects 
afterwards bound him, and left him on Mount Pangseon, where he was 
destroyed by wild horses, for such was the will of Dionysos. 

"When Dionysos grew up, he discovered the culture of the vine, and 
6he mode of extracting its precious liquor ; but Hera struck him with 
madness, and in this state he roamed through a great part of Asia. 



DIONYSOS OR BACCHUS. 335 

In Phrygia he was met by Rhea, who cured him, and taught him her 
religious rites, which he resolved to introduce into Greece. In his 
course he met with various adventures. 

At one time a body of pirates, who took him for the son of a king, 
in the hope of obtaining a large ransom, carried him off and placed him 
:n board their ship. No sooner, however, had they left the shore, 
than the cords with which the smiling boy was fastened fell off, and a 
fragrant stream of wine ran through the ship ; then suddenly a vine 
rose to the topsail, which expanded its branches, loaded with heavy 
grapes : the mast became entwined with dark ivy, and all the oars 
were covered with vine leaves. On the deck of the vessel a terrible 
lion made its appearance, casting around him fierce, threatening glan- 
ces ; terror seized the offenders, who leaped from the ship into the 
raging sea, where suddenly appearing as swimming dolphins, they bore 
witness to the power of the all-conquering deity. 

When Dionysos reached Thebes, the women readily received the new 
rites, and ran wildly through the woods of Cithaeron. Pentheus, the 
ruler of Thebes, set himself against them ; but Dionysos caused him 
to be torn to pieces by his mother and aunts The daughters of 
Minyas, Leucippe, Aristippe, and Alcathoe, also despised his rites, and 
continued plying their looms, while the other women ran through the 
mountains. Dionysos appeared to them as a maiden and remonstrat- 
ed, but in vain ; he then assumed the form of various wild beasts ; ser- 
pents filled their baskets , vines and ivy twined round their looms, 
while wine and milk distilled from the roof; still their obstinacy was 
unsubdued. He finally drove them mad, when they tore to pieces the 
son of Leucippe, and then went roaming through the mountains, till 
Hermes touched them with his wand, and changed them into a bat, an 
owl, and a crow. 

Dionysos next proceeded to Attica, where he taught Icarios the cul- 
ture of the vine. Icarios having made wine, gave it to some shepherds, 
who, thinking themselves poisoned, killed him ; recovering themselves, 
they buried him. His daughter, Erigone, being shown the spot by his 
faithful dog Msera, hung herself through grief. 

At. Argos the rites of Dionysos were received by the women as at 
Thebes, and opposed by Perseus, the son of Zeus and Danae ; Zeus, 
however, reduced his two sons to amity, and Dionysos thence passed 
over to Naxos, where he met with Ariadne. Afterwards he descended 



330 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



to Krebos. whence he brought his mother, whom he named Thyone ; 
and ascended with her to the abode of the gods. 

The expedition of Bacchos to India, is a beautiful and sublime 
fiction. TVith an army of both men and women, who advanced with 
joyful tumult, he extended his beneficent conquests as far as the Gran- 
ges, teaching the conquered nations the cultivation of the vine, to- 
geth^>. with a higher enjoyment of life, and giving them laws. In the 
divine person of Bacchos, men revered the more cheerful delights of 
life, as & particular, sublime being, who, under the form of an eternally 
flourishing youth, subdues lions and tigers that draw his chariot, and 
who. in divine ecstasy, accompanied by the sound of flutes and tim- 
brels, proceeds in triumph, from east to west, through all countries. 

The victorious expedition, undertaken for the benefit of the nations 
of earth, vas accomplished by Bacchos in three years ; for which rea- 
son the festivals afterwards instituted in remembrance of it, were 
always celebrated after the same interval of time. Then, the joyful 
tumult which accompanied the march of the god through the earth 
was repeated, and celebrated anew from every hill and mountain. The 
priestesses of the god of wine, roaming with dishevelled hair upon the 
mountains, filled the air with the noise proceeding from the beating of 
timbrels, playing upon flutes, &c, and the wild, continual cry, of Euoi ! 
Bacche ! The threatening thyrses in their hands, from which the 
colored ribbons waved, while the pine-apple on its top concealed the 
wounding point, is an emblem of the expedition to India ; on occa- 
sion of which, the clamor of war and din of battle were hidden under 
song and the sound of musical instruments. 

These inspired priestesses of Bacchos afforded a sublime subject to 
ancient poetry. A Bacchante in her ecstasy, was as if raised above 
the bounds of humanity. Inspired by the power of the deity, the boun- 
daries of human life were too narrow for her. Thus an ancient poet 
describes such an inspired personage, as on the top of a mountain, which 
she had unconsciously ascended : she suddenly wakes from her mental 
slumber, and beholds, beneath her, the river Hebrus, and all Thrace 
covered with snow. " The danger is sweet, thus to follow the god whose 
temples are enriched with verdant leaves." The very straining of all 
the powers, thus climbing up a steep mountain, in wild inspiration, is 
what readers this picture so beautiful 

Even old age is to be seen in the retinue of Bacchos, intoxicated by 
the sweet juice of the grape, and staggering about with uncertain step 



DIONYSOS OR BACCHUS. 337 

The most conspicuous figure in the train, however, is old Silenos, his 
reputed foster-father, riding with hoary head on his ass, supported by 
Satyrs and Fauns, and making in this state the most charming contrast 
in the youthful picture. Notwithstanding the ridicule which in this 
manner is brought upon the person of Silenos, he is often represented 
in the fictions of the ancients, as being a person of high mental powers. 
A profound knowledge of divine things is ascribed to him, and his very 
drunkenness is emblematically interpreted, by the giddiness into which 
profound meditation on the most sublime subjects has thrown him, and 
not the immoderate use of the sweet juice of the grape. He was also 
associated with the wise centaur Cheiron, as the tutor of young Bacchus. 
Two youthful shepherds finding Silenos sleeping from intoxication, 
bound him, while the nymph iEgle painted his cheeks with the juice 
of red berries, in order that the god, whom mortals could fetter in his 
sleep, might ransom himself by granting some request. When old 
Silenos awoke, the swains promised him his liberty, on condition that 
he would give them a lay. He acquiesced, and profound wisdom flowed 
from those lips, which were commonly wet with the drink of the vine. 
He chants forth the origin of things, and their miraculous change ; 
the swains listen with rapture to the song, which equals their highest 
wishes. This charming fiction shows also, how artfully the ancients 
veiled the ridiculous itself with dignity, and always found out that 
point which seems to us to be lost — the point where smiling sport and 
heavenly sublimity unite. At Elis, in Greece, Silenos had a temple of 
his own, and was worshipped as a higher being. The wantonly smiling 
Fauns, and the sarcastic Satyrs, also belonged to the train of Bacchos. 
with which, in general, were connected all those beings, who, endowed 
with youthful wantonness and cheerful levity, were, by a higher nature 
elevated above the cares and duties of mortals ; and thus, were forced 
neither by human necessities, nor moral obligations, to keep within 
the bounds of moderation. Bacchos, with his train, was with the an- 
cients the emblem of the most cheerful enjoyment : and as such, they 
must consider it as absolute, and without restrictions, comprising what 
would destroy mankind, if found in real life. 

The same ancient poet, therefore, who in enthusiastic strains sings 
the praises of Bacchos, cautions those who are drinking the cup which 
the god yields, to refrain from bloody quarrels ; citing as a warning 
example, the affray between the Centaurs and Lapithae, who, heated 
with wine, forgot the hospitable repast, and with blood thirsty desire 

22 



338 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

assailed one another in furious tumult, till the ground was covered with 
the bodies of the slain. Notwithstanding the threatening dangers 
arising from the homage paid to the god of wine, with the ancients, 
sensual pleasure, and even wild debauchery, were numbered in the 
general computation of things, and by no means excluded from the 
feasts of their gods. With them, life was considered as a tree full of 
sap, which unrestrained, shot out in exuberant twigs and branches, and, 
as they thought, without being disfigured by its luxuriant excrescences. 
In this light too, the festivals of Bacchos must be viewed ; for it was 
the intention of the ancients to represent, by the loud and cheerful 
train of Bacchos, the utmost degree of joy and pleasure : a moderate 
Bacchanalian festival would be no Bacchanalian festival at all, as a 
placid and affectionate Juno would cease to be a Juno ; and an honest 
Mercury would no longer be a Mercury. Indeed, if one should attempt 
to divest a Bacchanalian feast of revelry and extravagance, it would 
immediately cease also to be an object of art : for the very wildness, 
the roving about with' reeling steps, the flourishing of the thyrses, and 
the licentiousness of the Bacchantes, are the traits which alone can 
render such a picture interesting to an artist. 

Mythologists differ in opinion as to the origin of Bacchos. Creut- 
zer and others consider his worship as evidently of eastern origin, and 
that he is identified with the Osiris of the Egyptians and the Schiva 
of India. The fable of his birth, and his strange translation to the 
thigh of the monarch of Olympos. bear the impress of oriental imagery. 
An ivy branch is made to spring forth from a column to cover him with 
its leaves when he is taken from his mother, and the Ivy was in Egypt 
the plant of Osiris. In like manner, the coffin of the Egyptian deity 
is shaded by the plant erica, which springs from the ground and en- 
velopes it. Bacchos and Osiris both float upon the waters in a chest, 
or ark, and both have for one of their symbols the head of a bull. 

The Lingam and equilateral triangle, symbols of Bacchos, were also 
symbols of Schiva. The two systems of worship have the same ob- 
scenities and the same emblems Schiva is represented, in the Hindoo 
Mythology, as assuming the form of a lion during the great battle of the 
gods. He seizes the monster that attacks him with his teeth and 
fangs, while Dourga pierces him with his lance. In the Grecian My- 
thology, the same exploit is attributed to Bacchos. under the same 
fornij against the giant Khoetos. 



DIONYSOS OR BACCHUS. 339 



The manner in which the worship of Bacchos was carried into 
Greece will ever remain an enigma of difficult solution. The Greeks, 
indeed, made Thebes the birth-place of this deity : but this proves no 
thing for the fact of his Grecian origin. Thebes, in Boeotia. was the 
centre of the Cadinean- Asiatic Mythology ; a god whose worship came 
to the rest of the Greeks out of Thebes, was for them a deity born in 
Thebes ; and hence arose the legend of the Theban origin of Bacchos. 
So, when the Greek Mythology makes Bacchos to have gone on an ex- 
pedition to Asia, and to have conquered India, it merely reverses the 
order of events, and describes as the victorious progress of a Grecian 
deity, what was in reality the course which the religion of an oriental 
deity took from the East to the West. 

Voss, in his Anti-Symbolik. gives a history of the introduction of the 
worship of Bacchos into Greece, and its progress into that country, 
from the thirtieth to the sixtieth Olympiad. We find this worship 
making its first appearance in the mysteries of Samothrace ; furnish- 
ing to the Ionian school Phoenician elements ; enriching itself with 
ideas of Asiatic origin, by means of the extension of commerce ; ming- 
ling with the elements of Grecian philosophy in their very cradle : 
presenting Lydian and Phrygian additions as a primitive basis ; giv- 
ing an occult meaning to the public games at Olympia ; carrying back 
into Egypt, under the reign of Psammetichus along with the Milesian 
colonies, and. enriched with immense developments, what the Egyptian 
colonies had once carried into Greece ; identifying itself with the Or- 
phic doctrine, but always remaining an object of suspicion and aver- 
sion, and contemned by the wise in the days of Zenophanes and He- 
raclitus, as it had been a long time before proscribed by kings and re- 
jected by communities. 

The fables of which Bacchos is made the hero, the rites which those 
fables elucidated — rites bearing at one time the impress of profound 
sadness, at another of frantic joy, and by turns bloody and licentious, 
mournful and frantic, never became a part of the Grecian religion. 
Wherever they announced themselves, they excited only horror and 
dread. The sufferings and destructions of various dynasties attach 
themselves to their frightful and sudden appearance. Agave rends in 
pieces her son Pentheus ; Ino precipitates herself into the sea with 
3Ielicerta in her arms ; and the daughters of Minyas, becoming furi- 
ous, commit horrible murder, and undergo a hideous metamorphosis. 

The language of the poets who relate to us these fearful traditions. 



340 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

is sombre and mysterious in its character, and bears evident marks of a 
sacerdotal origin. The philosophic Euripides, as well as Ovid, who 
expresses himself with so much lightness in reference to other legends, 
appears, in describing the death of Pentheus, to partake of the sangui- 
nary joy, the ferocious irony, and the fanaticism of the Bacchantes. 
One would feel tempted to say, that the sacerdotal spirit had triumph- 
ed over the incredulous poets ; and that after the lapse of ten centu- 
ries, the frenzy of the ancient orgies had affected their senses and 
troubled their reason. 

In the age of Homer, these mournful recitals were either unknown 
or treated with disdain ; for he speaks only once of Bacchos, on occa- 
sion of the victory which he gained over Lycurgos. And the scholiasts 
express their surprise that the poet, after having thus placed Bacchos 
among the divinities of Olympos, makes him take no part in the sub- 
jects that divide them. The Grecian spirit, therefore, at an early pe- 
riod, renounced every attempt to modify this heterogeneous conception. 

The Grecian festivals, in honor of Dionysos, called Dionysia, were 
observed at Athens with more splendor and superstition than in any 
other part of Greece. The years were numbered by their celebration, 
the archon assisted at their solemnity, and the priests who officiated 
were honored with the most dignified seats at the public games. They 
were at first celebrated with great simplicity, and the time was conse- 
crated to mirth. It was then usual to bring a vessel full of wine, 
adorned with a vine branch, after which followed a goat, a basket of 
figs, and other emblems. In imitation of the poetical fictions of Dio- 
nysos, his worshippers were clothed in fawn skins, fine linen, and mitres, 
and crowned themselves with garlands of ivy, vine, and fir, and carried 
thyrses, drums, pipes and flutes. Some, in the uncouth manner of their 
dress, and their fantastic motions, imitated Pan, Silenos, and the Satyrs ; 
and some rode on asses, while others drove the goats to slaughter for 
the sacrifice, and in this manner both sexes joined in the solemnity, 
and ran about the hills and country, nodding their heads, dancing in 
ridiculous postures, and filling the air with hideous shrieks and shouts, 
crying Bacche ! Io ! Io! Euoi ! Iacche ! etc.. beating on drums and 
sounding various instruments. 

With such solemnities were the Greek festivals of Bacchos celebrated. 
In one of these a procession was formed, bearing the various emblems 
of his worship ; and among them a select number of noble virgins car 



DIONYSOS OR BACCHUS. 341 

ried baskets of gold, filled with all kinds of fruit ; serpents were some- 
times put in the baskets, and by their wreathing and crawling out 
amused and astonished the beholders. This was the most mysterious 
part of the solemnity. 

These festivals, in honor of the god of wine, contributed much to the 
corruption of morals among all classes of people. They were intro- 
duced into Etruria, and from thence to Rome, where both sexes pro- 
miscuously joined in the celebration during the darkness of the night ; 
but their vicious excesses called for the interference of the senate, who 
passed a decree, banishing the Bacchanalia for ever from Rome. 

The women who bore a chief part in these festivals were called 
Mcenades, Baccha, Thyiades, and Euades. 

As the god of wine, Bacchos is generally represented crowned with 
vine and ivy leaves, with a thyrse in his hand. His figure is that of 
an effeminate young man. 

In the divine form of the eternally youthful Bacchos, similar beings 
veiled by grey antiquity in mysterious fables, are renewed. Upon 
ancient monuments we yet not unfrequently meet with an Indian, as 
well as an Egyptian Bacchos, both of whom are represented with beards. 
and not in youthful forms. 

The golden horns upon the head of Bacchos, which by the plastic 
art of the Greeks were either entirely hidden, or partly concealed, are 
a token of the high antiquity of this god ; such horns having been in 
the remotest times connected with the ideas of inward, divine power. 

Among animals, the spotted panther is sacred to Bacchos ; fierce- 
ness, nay, even cruelty is tamed by him. and cringes at his feet; and 
he is said to have been clothed in the skin of this animal on his expe- 
dition to India. The ever-verdant ivy, and the snake, which, casting 
its skin, renews itself, are pleasing emblems of perpetual youth ; in 
which the divine form of Bacchos resembles that of Apollo, only with 
this difference — the former is represented as more delicate and feminine. 
His beauty is compared to that of Apollo, and both are represented 
with fine hair flowing loosely on the shoulders. 

A beautiful antique gem shows Bacchos sitting in a chariot, drawn 
by two panthers, on which two Cupids are riding, and one of them 
playing the flute. Another gem i epresents Silenos with a sickle in 
his right hand, and his left arm resting on a lyre : an emblem of ecstasy 
overflowing in harmonious lays. 



342 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

In his triumphs over the Indians, the captives are represented as 
chained, and placed on wagons or elephants, and among them is carried 
a large crater full of wine ; Bacchos is in a chariot drawn by elephants 
or panthers, leaning on Ampelos. preceded by Pan, and followed by 
Silenos, the Satyrs, and Masnades, who make the air resound with the 
clash of their instruments, and the sound of their voices. 

The thyrse was one of the most common and ancient attributes of 
Bacchos and his joyous crew. It consisted of a lance, the iron point 
of which was concealed in a pine cone, in memory of the stratagem of 
his followers in concealing their pikes. It was used at all the festivals 
held in his honor, and often twined with wreaths of ivy or bay. 

MINOS, RHADAMANTHYS, AND SARPEDON. 

Zeus, says the legend, becoming enamored of the beauty of Europa, 
the daughter of Phoenix or Agenor, changed himself into a beautiful 
white bull, and " breathing saffron from his mouth," he approached her 
as she was gathering flowers with her companions in a mead near the 
shore. Europa, delighted with the tameness and beauty of the animal, 
caressed him, crowned him with flowers, and at length ventured to 
mount his back. The disguised god immediately made off with his 
lovely burden, ran along the waves of the sea, and made no stop till he 
arrived at Crete, not far from Gortyna. Here he resumed his own 
form, and beneath a plane-tree embraced the trembling maiden. By 
him she had three sons, Minos, Bhadamanthys, and Sarpedon. 

These three brothers fell into discord for the sake of a beautiful 
youth named Miletos, the son of Apollo, or of Zeus. The youth testi- 
fying the most esteem for Sarpedon, Minos chased them out of Crete. 
Miletos went to Caria, where he built a town which he named from 
himself. Sarpedon went to Lycia, where he aided Cilix against the 
people of that country, and obtained the sovereignty of a part of it. 
Zeus is said to have bestowed on him a life of triple duration. 

Bhadamanthys ruled with justice and equity over the islands. Hav- 
ing accidentally committed homicide, he retired to Bceotia, where he 
married Alcmena, the mother of Heracles. According to Homer, Bha- 
damanthys was placed on the Elysian Plain, among the heroes to whom 
Zeus allotted that blissful abode. Pindar seems to muke him a sove- 
reign or judge in the island of the Blest. Later poets place him with 
Minos and JEacos in the under world, where their oflice is to judge the 
dead. 



MINOS, RHADAMANTHYS, AND SARPEDON. 343 

Minos is chiefly remarkable for belonging to a period when history 
and mythology interlace; and as uniting in his own person the chief 
characteristics of both. He is a son of Zeus, and yet the first possessor 
of a navy ; a judge in Hades, and at the same time a king in Crete. 

It is worthy of remark, that Crete, so famous at this age, both for its 
naval power and for being the birth-place of the Olympian gods, should 
never afterwards have attained any thing like the celebrity which its 
position seemed to promise. Its office seems to have been that of lead- 
ing the way in naval supremacy. Too isolated for power of a durable 
nature, it was lost in the confederate or opposing glories of Athens and 
Sparta ; but while they were yet in their infancy, the insular form of 
Crete (together perhaps with some Asiatic refinement) gave it that 
concentrated energy, which in an early age is irresistible. 

According to fiction, Minos, in a grotto on Mount Ida, had occasional 
secret converse with his father Zeus, the purport of which he announced 
to the listening people as the fundamental part of legislation. In con- 
sequence of this wise government and justice, fiction transferred to him, 
together with his brother and counsellor, Rhadamanthys, as the most 
righteous of mortals, the judicature over the dead in the lower world : 
associating with them iEacos, the father of Peleus, and sometimes Trip- 
tolemos too, the benefactor of mankind. 

Minos, the legislator, was at the same time a warlike and valiant 
prince, who, sweeping the pirates from the Mediterranean sea, rendered 
sailing and commerce safe. But the hero, who in many respects was 
the benefactor of mankind, was obliged to endure misfortunes which 
shaded his glorious victories in gloom. 

The wife of Minos was Pasiphae, a daughter of the Sun and Per- 
seis, and sister of iEtes. By her he had several children, the most 
celebrated of whom were Androgeos, Glaucos, Deucalion, Ariadne, and 
Phaedra. 

After the death of Asterion, the Cretans hesitated whether to give 
Minos the royal dignity ; to prove his claim to it, he asserted that he 
could obtain whatever he chose to pray for. Then, sacrificing to Po- 
seidon, he besought him to send Aim a bull from the bottom of the sea 
(a bull with the ancients being an emblem of power), promising to sac- 
rifice whatever should appear. Poseidon sent the bull, and Minos 
received the kingdom. According to Homer, he ruled nine years at 
Cnossos, and was the intimate friend of Zeus. He was victorious in 
war, and extended his dominion over the isks of the iEgean. 



344 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

The bull which Poseidon had sent out of the sea, being of a large 
size and brilliant white hue, appeared to Minos too beautiful an animal 
to be slain ; he therefore put him in his herd and substituted an ordi- 
nary one in its place. This act offended Poseidon, and he caused the 
bull to run wild, and at the same time inspired Pasiphae with a strange 
passion for him, and she became the parent of the monster, half man 
and half bull, which, under the name of the Minotaur, often makes its 
appearance in ancient fictions. 

Daedalos, the most skilful artist and architect of that time, had fled 
to Crete, on account of a crime committed in his native city of Athens ; 
and Minos, in compliance with an oracle, charged him with making 
that subterranean building, with many walks and innumerable winding 
passages, which is known by the name of the Cretan Labyrinth. In 
the middle of this Labyrinth was the abode of the Minotaur, visible 
only to those unfortunate victims who were thrown to the monster to 
be devoured, or those who had dared to enter the Labyrinth, but were 
unable to extricate themselves, and thus came within the reach of its 
terrible inmate. 

In the mean while, Androgeos, a son of Minos, accompanied by many 
of his friends, had undertaken a voyage to Athens to participate in 
the celebration of the Athenian games. Having there excited the 
jealousy and suspicion of iEgeus, the childless king of Athens, because 
he had taken the prize in every combat, and gained the applause of 
the whole people, the promising son of Minos was basely assassinated. 
No sooner was his father informed of this new misfortune that had 
befallen him, than he went over to Athens with his whole force to 
avenge the murder. 

He first besieged Nisa, where Nisos, brother of JEgeus, was king. 
Nisos, with his city, was betrayed by his own daughter, Scylla, who 
having an admiration for Minos, in disregard both of filial love and 
duty, went to her father while he was sleeping, and cut from his head 
a golden lock, by means of which he had been invincible. She handed 
this lock, the strength of her father, to Minos ; but instead of gaining 
favor with the Cretan ruler, as she had expected, she was punished by 
him according to her deserts : he employed the gift to his advantage, 
but treated the giver with scorn and contempt. 

After the attack on Nisa, which city was afterwards called Megara, 
Minos immediately moved with his army towards Athens, which op 
pressed by drought and famine, was already groaning under the wratb 



THESEUS. 345 

of the gods and its distressing fate. In addition to the miseries which 
they suffered, it was declared by an oracle, that the immortals would 
not cease to send misfortunes on the city, until it should have given 
to Minos ample satisfaction for the murder of his son. Upon this, the 
Athenians sent ambassadors to the ruler of Crete, who appeared before 
him with humble demeanor, and supplicated peace. Minos granted 
peace on this hard condition ; — that Athens should send annually., 
seven of her handsomest youths, and as many of her most beautiful 
maidens to Crete, in order, as victims of their native land, to expiate 
the murder of Androgeos, by becoming the prey of the Minotaur. 

When Theseus had at last killed this monster and fled with Ariadne, 
the daughter of the Cretan monarch, Minos, unable to avenge himself 
in any other manner, shut up the Athenian Dsedalos, together with his 
son, Tcaros, in the Labyrinth, the work of his own hands. The art of 
Dsedalos, however, supplied him with the means of flying with his son 
out of prison, and of reaching Sicily, where he met with a friendly 
reception by Cocalos, king of the island. 

Minos demanded that Dsedalos should be delivered up to him ; and 
having been invited by Cocalos to a personal interview, went to Sicily, 
where he was received by the king in a friendly manner ; but in the 
end was secretly suffocated when bathing. Thus Minos, the wise Le- 
gislator, the valiant warrior, the benefactor of mankind, found his death 
in a foreign country, while pursuing the artist who was protected by 
the immortals. He was succeeded in his kingdom by his son Deuca- 
lion, whose son, Idomeneus, led the troops of Crete to the war of Troy. 

THESEUS. 

Theseus, king of Athens, and son of iEgeus by iEthra, the daughter 
of Pittheus, monarch of Troezen, was one of the most famous heroes of 
antiquity. IEgeus, who was privately married to -ZEthra, before leaving 
Troezen, concealed his sword and sandals under a stone, and told iEthra, 
that if she should have a son, not to send him to Athens until he had 
become strong enough to raise it. She obeyed the injunction, and 
Theseus was educated by Connidas under the supervision of his grand- 
father, the wise Pittheus ; and as often as the Athenians celebrated a 
festival in honor of Theseus, the name of Connidas was mentioned with 
veneration. 

When Theseus was grown to the proper &ge, his mother led him to 



346 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

the stone on which he was to try his strength. Lifting it, he took 
from beneath his father's sword and sandals, with which he entered 
upon his journey to Athens. 

Imitating the example of Heracles, whom the glowing soul of the 
young hero had embraced as his model, he chose the more dangerous 
way by land, where he must encounter robbers, who made the roads 
unsafe, and who treated all strangers who fell into their hands in the 
most cruel manner As Theseus, armed with his father's good sword, 
was passing on his way from Troezen, through the country of Epidau- 
ros, he first met with Periphates. a son of Hephsestos. This fero- 
cious savage was famous for his cruelty, and trusting to his gigantic 
strength, laid wait for travellers with no other weapon than a club, 
which, however, was the terror of all the surrounding country. The- 
seus, assaulted by him, stretched him to the ground by the aid of his 
good sword, and ever after carried the club of his foe in remembrance 
of his victory. 

Upon the Isthmus of Corinth he fought a still more cruel murderer, 
Sinis (Evil-doer), who was also called the Pine-bender. His strength 
was so great that he was able to take pine trees by the top, and bend 
them to the ground. Placing himself by the road-side, he obliged all 
passengers to take hold of a pine with him and bend it ; he would then 
let go, and the tree flying up, the unhappy stranger was dashed to the 
ground and killed. Theseus, on being challenged, though he never 
before attempted such a feat, held down the tree with ease ; he then 
conquered the monster, and obliged him to undergo the punishment 
that his cruelty and crimes deserved, by putting him to death in the 
same manner in which he had been accustomed to destroy his fellow 
creatures. 

Theseus likewise delivered the countries through which he passed 
from the monsters by which they were infested ; killing, among others, 
the Cromyonian Swine, which, wasting the fields, and threatening de- 
struction every where to the inhabitants, was both a plague and a terror 
to the land. 

As he approached the borders of Megara, he came to the narrow 
path overhanging the sea, where the robber Sciron (from whom the 
pass derived its name) had fixed his abode. When any stranger 
came to him, it was the custom of Sciron, instead of giving water to 
wash the feet of his guest, to insist upon the guest's washing his feet. 
This ceremony was performed on the pass ; and Sciron, taking advau- 



THFSETJS. 347 



fcage of the opportunity it gave him, tumbled e 7 ? ery one into the sea, 
where was a huge tortoise always ready to devour the bodies of those 
who were thrown down. Theseus conquered Sciron, and threw hiiia 
down to the tortoise. 

In Eleusis, Theseus fought with the robber Cercyon, whom he van 
quished and killed ; and upon arriving a short distance further, at Her- 
mione, he found the formidable "Damastes, who. from the particular kind 
of cruelty with which he abused foreigners, was called Procrustes {the 
Stretcher). For this tyrant is said to have had two iron bedsteads, of 
different lengths, in which he placed all strangers who arrived within 
his reach ; and in such a manner as to lay the short ones upon the 
long bedstead, and those who were of a larger stature, upon the short 
one. He then by force stretched the former to the extremity of the 
bedstead, and cut off the limbs of the latter to fit their couch of tor- 
ture. Theseus, after having subdued him in a combat, subjected him 
to the same pain that he had inflicted upon others, and then delivered 
the earth from the monster. 

It seems as if fiction here aimed at representing the violation of the 
rites of hospitality in its most heinous light ; for what can be imagined 
more cruel and barbarous than to change the very place of repose into a 
rack ! It was under the sacredness of hospitality, that men could first 
commune with each other, and contribute to their mutual civilization. 
To rid the earth of such as violated these sacred rites, and thereby 
hinder the progress of improvement among mankind, was a task wor- 
thy of the heroes, whose proper reward is, having their names immor 
talized as the benefactors of the world. 

When Theseus arrived at Athens, he was recognized and acknow- 
ledged by iEgeus as his son and successor on the royal throne ; upon 
which, the sons of Pallas, the brother of iEgeus, who had already 
flattered themselves with the hope of succeeding their childless uncle in 
the government of Athens, excited a revolt, which, however, was imme- 
diately quelled by Theseus. 

It was then the third year that the Athenians had been obliged to 
send the sad tribute of fourteen of its handsomest children to the isl- 
and of Crete, as an atonement for the murder of Androgeos, son of 
Minos ; and as long as the Minotaur was alive, the Athenians dared 
not hope to be released from the tribute. When, therefore, the youths 
and maidens had drawn their lot of death, and as the destined victims 



348 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



for the present year were departing, in spite of the entreaties of his 
father to the contrary, Theseus voluntarily offered himself as one of 
their number, in the hope of conquering the monster. 

Before his departure, he made a vow to Apollo that, if he should be 
successful in this undertaking, he would send annually to his temple 
on the island of Delos, a ship laden with offerings and presents ; and, 
upon inquiring of the oracle what the event should be, he received for 
answer, that if he chose Love for his guide, it would be successful. 

The ship departed as usual, under black sails, which Theseus prom- 
ised his father to exchange for white in case he should return victori- 
ous. The vessel, wafted by favorable winds, soon arrived at Crete, 
where, when the victims were presented to Minos, the eyes of Ariadne, 
his royal daughter, rested upon Theseus, whose beauty and noble stat- 
ure made an impression on her heart. Theseus chose Love for his 
guide, receiving from Ariadne the clew that made him secure of a pass- 
age out of the Labyrinth. Holding Ariadne's thread in his hand, he 
confidently descended into the mazes of the subterranean building, 
where, as soon as he had found the Minotaur, he begau a desperate 
fight with the monster, and killed him, aided by the advice which he 
had received from Ariadne. 

The death of the monster freed the Athenians from the horrible 
tribute which they had twice paid with their own children ; and their 
sons and daughters, already destined to die a cruel death, owed their 
preservation to Theseus. The expression of their gratitude became a 
favorite subject of plastic art, in ancient as well as in modern times. 
A picture, found in Herculaneum, shows the hero surrounded by ten- 
der boys, who were saved from death by his exertions, and who, in 
gratitude, are embracing his knees and kissing his hands. 

Ariadne fled with her beloved Theseus to the island of Naxos, where, 
however, Theseus was forced by the will of the gods to desert her, be- 
cause Bacchos, the deity of the island, was captivated by her charms. 
The god found her sleeping at night in the open air, and when she 
awoke, he, in token of his divinity, cast the golden crown which he 
wore upon his head towards the sky, where it immediately appeared as 
a splendid constellation, and bore witness to the marriage of Bacchos 
and Ariadne. 

Before returning to Athens, Theseus sailed to the island of Delos 
in order to pay his vow to Apollo. At the same time, he there conse- 
crated to Aphrodite, in gratitude for the assistance he had received from 



THESEUS. 349 



her, a statue made by Daedalos ; and to preserve the memory of his 
victory over the Minotaur, he instituted a dance, which imitated the 
windings of the Labyrinth. 

The sacred vow which Theseus had made to the god of Delos, was, 
long after his death, fulfilled with the greatest care by the Athenians. 
In the very same ship in which the hero had returned from Crete, am- 
bassadors, crowned with olive wreaths, were sent every year to Delos ; 
^nd to make the vessel, as it were, everlasting, the injuries of time 
were carefully repaired, so that at last, although considered the same, 
she was an entirely different ship from that which had borne the hero. 
Neither was any criminal put to death while this ship was on its pass- 
age to and from Delos — a circumstance which long afterwards spared 
for a short time the life of Socrates. It was a law worthy of the sub- 
lime sentiments of the Athenians during their better times, that while 
celebrating the delivery of their children from destruction, no one 
should become the victim of a violent death. 

From Delos, Theseus steered directly to Athens, to announce there 
the happy issue of his enterprise, which was yet to terminate in a tragi- 
cal event. For when iEgeus, standing on a high rock near the sea-shore, 
and looking anxiously over the waters for the returning ship, descried 
at last a black sail, which the pilot had forgotten to exchange for a 
white one, in despair he threw himself into the sea. which after him is 
called the iEgean. 

Theseus was received with loud applause by the Athenians, as their 
protector and deliverer from the most distressing tribute ; and, suc- 
ceeding his father on the royal throne, he availed himself of the affec- 
tion of his people, and introduced a wise course of government, as well 
as an improved code of laws. Indeed he may be called the creator of 
the Athenian state, because he united the people (who, until his day, 
had lived scattered) in small districts, and brought them into one com- 
pact body in the city, which he divided into certain sections; he also 
settled the borders of the Atheniau territory, by treaties with the 
neighboring tribes. Having succeeded in modelling the people accord- 
ing to his views, he instituted the religious service of Peitho. the god- 
dess of persuasion. 

After having accomplished his task as a royal magistrate and legis- 
lator, Theseus gave an example of magnanimity which rendered him 
worthy the admiration of all successive ages. Voluntarily divesting 
himself of the greater part of his authority, in compliance with the 



350 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

voice of an oracle, lie endeavored to prepare Athens for becoming a 
republic. In honor of Poseidon, whom Fame called his father, he re- 
newed the Athenian games ; and as all Grreece assembled at their cel- 
ebration, he in this way promoted the intercourse and general improve- 
ment among his people. 

Theseus' civic cares did not prevent him from engaging in warlike 
occupations. He accompanied Heracles in his expedition against the 
Amazons, who then dwelt on the banks of the Thermodon ; and as a 
reward for his distinguished services in the conflict. Heracles, after the 
victory, bestowed on him the hand of the vanquished queen. When 
the Amazons in revenge afterwards invaded the Attic territory, they 
again met with a signal defeat by the Athenian prince 

An amiable feature in the history of this hero, is the inseparable 
friendship which united him with Pirithoos, a Thessalian prince, who 
ruled over the Lapithae. Their friendship, nevertheless, originated in 
arms. The renown of Theseus having spread widely over Greece, 
Pirithoos became desirous not only of beholding him, but of witnessing 
his exploits ; he accordingly made an irruption in the plain of Mara- 
thon, and carried oif the herds of the king of Athens. 

On receiving the information, Theseus went to repel the plunderers 
The moment Pirithoos beheld him, he was seized with secret admira- 
tion, and stretching out his hand in token of peace, exclaimed, " Be 
judge thyself! what satisfaction dost thou require ?" " Thy friendship,' 
replied the Athenian, and they thereupon swore eternal fidelity. 

There was now no danger too great for Theseus and Pirithoos to 
brave ; none that could separate the heroes. They were present at 
the Calydonian hunt, and both took part in the famous conflict between 
the Centaurs and Lapithae. The cause of the contest was as follows — 
Pirithoos having obtained the hand of Hippodamia, daughter of Adras- 
tos. king of Argos, the chiefs of his nation, the Lapithae, were all invited 
to the wedding, as well as the Centaurs who dwelt in the neighborhood 
of Pelion. Theseus, Hercules, and Nestor were likewise present. 
Heated by wine, the Centaurs began to quarrel during the repast, and 
threatened to carry away Hippodamia ; and would have made good 
their threat but for Heracles and Theseus, who valiautly assisted Piri- 
thoos, and punished the haughty pride of the Centaurs, not only on 
that occasion, but afterwards also in a regular battle. This is the fa- 
mous battle between the Centaurs and Lapithae, so often a subject of 
poetry with the ancients, as well as of art. 



THESEUS. 351 



Like faithful comrades, Theseus and Pirithoos aided each other in 
every project, and the death of Hippodamia having subsequently left 
Pirithoos free to form a new attachment, the two friends, equally am- 
bitious in love, resolved each to possess a daughter of the king of the 
gods. Theseus fixed his thoughts on Helena, the daughter of Zeus 
and Leda, then a child of nine years old. The friends succeeded in 
their plan of carrying her off, and placing her under the care of his 
mother, iEthra, at Aphidnae. Theseus then prepared to assist his 
friend in a bolder and more perilous attempt ; for Pirithoos resolved 
to venture on the daring deed, of carrying away from the palace of the 
monarch of the under-world his queen, Proserpina, to take vengeance 
as it were on Pluto, for having deprived him of his wife, Hippodamia. 
There is a deep sense hidden in this latter fiction The undertaking 
was one which inevitably involved the most imminent danger, and 
Theseus, faithful to his friend even unto death, descended with him 

"To the seat of desolation, void of light." 

They descended together to the region of shadow ; but Pluto, know- 
ing their design, seized them, and placed them upon an enchanted 
rock, at the gate of his realm. Here they sat, unable to move, till. 
Heracles, passing by in his descent for Cerberos, freed Theseus ; but 
when he would have done the same for Pirithoos, the earth quaked, 
and he left him. Pirithoos, therefore, remained everlastingly on the 
rock, as a punishment for his audacious attempt, and thus death sepa- 
rated the most faithful of friends. 

This loss was the forerunner of many misfortunes which afterwards 
befel Theseus, embittering the rest of his days. It was the common 
lot of heroes to end their lives in a tragical manner, and from this 
Theseus was not exempt. 

When he returned to Athens, he found the fickle and ungrateful 
people excited against him by his enemies, and while struggling against 
a public enemy, a domestic foe arose in the bosom of his family. After 
Antiope's death, Theseus married Phaedra, a daughter of Minos, and 
sister of Ariadne. Conceiving a hatred against Hippolytos, Antiope's 
son, she preferred a false charge against him, in consequence of which 
he lost his life. When Phaedra heard of the fate which had befallen 
her innocent victim, in bitter repentance she put an end to her own 
life ; and Theseus, learning too late the innocence of his son, was well 
nigh driven to despair. 



352 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



The invasion of Attica by Castor and Pollux, for the recovery of 
their sister, Helena, and an insurrection of the Pallantidse, brought od 
Theseus the usual fate of all great Athenians — exile. Oppressed by 
misfortunes, as well as the ingratitude of his people, he banished him 
self from Athens, uttering before, he went on board the ship that was 
to take him to a foreign country, the bitterest curses against the Athe- 
nians. The place where this occurred was afterwards called the place 
of imprecations. 

He retired to the isle of Scyros, where he hoped to spend the rest 
of his days in quiet, but the treacherous Lycomedes, who was king of 
the island, feared the enemies of Theseus, and violated the sacred rites 
of hospitality. Under the pretext of showing his guest the island, he 
conducted him to the summit of a steep rock, and hurled him down 
unawares. 

Long after his death, the Athenians built temples and altars in 
honor of Theseus, and revering him as a demi-god, brought offerings to 
his altars, and instituted festivals to his memory. They also obtained 
his bones from the island of Scyros, and interred them beneath the 
soil of Attica. 

" Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, in his revision of the Homeric 
Poems, is said to have interpolated a verse which characterized The- 
seus and his friend Pirithoos as sons of the immortal gods ; and he is 
alleged by the same historian who makes this assertion, to have expung- 
ed a line from the works of Hesiod, which mentioned a fact not very 
creditable to the memory of the Athenian hero, namely, the reason by 
which he was induced, in his return from Crete to Athens, to abandon 
Ariadne on the island of Naxos. 

That the Athenians themselves felt a personal interest in all that 
concerned the character of Theseus, is clear from these circumstances, 
as well as from other evidence. The incidents of the story which re- 
flected honor upon him were subjects of national pride to them ; they 
strove with him, as it were, in his struggles, fought by his side in his 
battles, and triumphed in his conquests He was, in a word, the an- 
cient people of Athens personified by itself. 

This being the case, the narration of his exploits and adventures 
becomes an object of peculiar interest, not so much as presenting his- 
torical facts in themselves — for they rest upon evidence of too partial 
a kind to allow them to claim this character — but. as exhibiting to out 



THESEUS. 



353 



eyes a picture of the ancient population of Attica, as drawn originally 
by their own hands, and retouched and embellished by those of their 
posterity. 

It is not thereby intimated that all belief in the incidents of the 
biography of Theseus, as detailed in the popular records of Athenian 
tradition, is vain and groundless : it is, on the contrary, more ration- 
al to suppose that a people eminently distinguished for its critical per- 
ception of propriety in all the imitative arts, would not have failed, in 
this national portrait, to adopt a real model, and to sketch from it an 
outline not inconsistent with truth ; and that subsequently it would 
have endeavored to fill up the lineaments thus correctly drawn, with 
lights and shadows harmoniously adapted to them, and have been care- 
ful to introduce nothing that was not in due kef ping with the tone and 
character of the age to which the subject of the design belonged. 

As a proof of this assertion, we may reftr to those particular circum- 
stances in the life of Theseus, which exhibit him and his countrymen 
in an unfavorable light. His biographv is not a mere panegyric. It 
records both his ingratitude .to Ariadne, and the ingratitude of his 
country to him. In it, the Athenian hero leaves his benefactress on a 
desolate shore ; and he himself is driven by the Athenians from his 
kingdom into exile on the barren rock of Scyros. The heroine, indeed, 
is soon rescued from her distress by the appearance of Bacchos, the 
deity of Naxos : but Theseus is left to die in his banishment ; and it 
was not until many centuries had elapsed, that his bones were dug up 
and brought with triumphal honors to his own city, and deposited there 
in that magnificent building, which still survives in its pristine beauty 
to this day, and thus unites the age of Theseus with our own, and was 
both his temple and his tomb. 

We are therefore to believe, that the character of Theseus, as exhib- 
ited to us in the surviving remains of Athenian tradition, may be justly 
considered as a representation, partly historical and partly ideal, of the 
condition of the Athenian people, when the age of mythology was draw- 
ing to a close, and is founded upon a real basis of the life and exploits 
of an individual. 

Viewed in this light, it becomes, as it were, the Athenian theory of 
the state in which they were wont to contemplate themselves as exist 
ing at that early period of their history ; and thus the fabulous legends 
of his heroic acts assume a practical character. They become assertions* 
of national power exerted for great and useful purposes in that age. 

33 



354 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



His legislative enactments are expressions of their own civil policy at 
that time. 

In these accounts, Theseus is called the founder of the Athenian 
form of popular government. To him, the statesmen and orators of 
later days ascribed the origin of the political privileges enjoyed by 
those whom they addressed. He was said to have organized the fed- 
eral body, of which the communities of Attica were members. He 
united them in a civil society, of which the old Cecropian town was 
the head. He gave to that city, which thenceforth became the capital 
of Attica, the name of Athens. He instituted the Panathenaic festival, 
to commemorate this act of union. 

All these works attributed to Theseus, seem to have been ascribed 
to him as the personified representative of the state. And not merely 
his public acts may be identified, as it seems, with those of the national 
body, but even his private relations appear to have been so modified as 
to express the connection of the Athenian people with objects analo- 
gous to those which were contemplated by those relations. Thus the 
inviolable friendship which united Theseus and Pirithoos, seems to 
have represented the ancient national amity which subsisted between 
the two countries to which these two heroes belonged, namely, Athens, 
and Thessaly. Again in the rivalries of the Athenian king was shad- 
owed out the history of the popular jealousies. The object of his am- 
bition is represented as a desire to emulate the deeds of his contempo- 
rary and relative, Hercules. If the latter destroyed the monsters 
which devastated the land of Greece, Theseus did the same. If Hercules 
sailed to Argo, Theseus belonged to the same crew. If he joined the 
hunters of the Calydonian boar, Theseus was there also ; if Hercules 
is clad in the skin of the lion of Nemsea, Theseus wears the hide of the 
Marathonian bull ; if Hercules bears a club, so"does Theseus ; if the 
Olympian games are founded by him, Theseus institutes the Isthmian; 
if Hercules erects the columns at Gades, Theseus does the same at 
the Isthmus of Corinth. 

In all these particulars, the real competitors, whose emulation is 
expressed by them, are not so much Hercules and Theseus, as the 
'nations of which these two heroes are the representatives. They are 
either Thebes and Athens, or Argos and Athens ; and thus the legends 
are of value, as indicating the political relation which subsisted between 
these nations respectively at the period when the traditions in question 
originated. 



THESE TS. 355 



The antiquity of a similar feeling of jealousy which estranged Athens 
from Sparta, is proved by the story which represents the Spartan Helen 
detained as a prisoner at Aphidnae in Attica, and committed by The- 
seus to the custody of iEthra. his mother, till his country is invaded 
by her tvo brothers, Castor and Pollux, who rescue her from captivity. 
A different feeling was entertained by Athens towards the people of 
Troezen ; and this is expressed by the tradition which leaves Theseus 
to pass his early youth under the tuition of his father-in-law Pittheus, 
the wise and virtuous monarch, as he is described, of that country ; 
which sends him to Troezen as a place of refuge during his temporary 
exile from Attica ; and which consigns Hippolyta, for his education, 
to the same place. In connection with these accounts, it will be re- 
membered that Troezen was the principal asylum of a part of the pop- 
ulation .of Attica, when driven from their country by the Persians 
before the battle of Salamis ; and, perhaps, the Athenian traditions 
themselves are allusive to that fact, and are grateful memorials of it. It 
may be added, as a future indication of this intimacy, that Sphettus 
and Anaphlystus, two important cities on the western coast of Attica, 
are said, in mythological language, to be the sons of Troezen. 

Several particulars have been referred to, in which the superiority 
of Theseus over his rival Hercules is evinced. Hercules indeed re 
mained without a competitor in deeds of physical force. The palm of 
greater excellence in athletic exercises was willingly conceded by 
Athens to Thebes ; and indeed the eminence of the latter in this re- 
spect was regarded by its more intellectual neighbor and rival as one 
of the causes that conduced to give it a savage character, which was 
neither to be envied nor admired. But Hercules was no statesman ; 
he framed no laws, settled no form of government, organized no reli- 
gious or civil societies ; but all these things Theseus did. Above all, 
Hercules gave no encouragement to the arts ; but Theseus, on the other 
hand, was the friend — he is called the cousin and brother of Daedalos, 
who formed the Cretan labyrinth for Minos, and first endued statues 
with the power of motion and sight : he was the favorite, the son of 
Neptune : he built ships and encouraged commerce ; he also worked 
mines and coined money. In all these respects the balance is greatly 
in favor of the Athenian hero : or, as it may be expressed in other 
words, in all the arts and scien ?es which elevate the thoughts and pro- 
mote the welfare of man in social and civil life, the merits of Attica 



356 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



are asserted by these traditions to have far eclipsed the pretensions of 
her Boeotian neighbor." 

' : The temple of Theseus, constructed of white Pentelic marble, is 
surrounded by a sacred inclosure, and raised upon two steps on a small 
isolated hill in the district of Melite. Its eastern or principal front, 
and its south side, are visible from our station in the Acropolis. It 
has six columns at each end, and thirteen on each side The eastern 
pediment is adorned with sculptures, as are the ten metopes oa the east 
front : the latter relate to the labors of Hercules ; while upon the four, 
both on the north and south sides, at the east end of the temple, the 
exploits of Theseus are represented. There is a frieze on both the 
pronaos and posticum ; the former exhibits a contest of men mixed with 
the gods, and seems to represent the war of Theseus with the Pal- 
lantidae ; the latter represents the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithse. 

" The building of this temple was commenced under the auspices of 
Cimon, son of Miltiades, in the year B. C. 476, four years after the 
battle of Salamis, and may be considered as the first effort of great irn- 
partance to restore the consecrated buildings of Athens, which were 
destroyed at its capture by the Persians before that event. It is a 
singular circumstance, and worthy of observation, that one of the first 
acts of the Athenians on their return to Athens, after their own tem- 
porary banishment to Salamis and Troezen, was to restore their na- 
tional hero. Theseus, who had been exiled by their ancestors, to his 
own native city. His remains were brought by Cimon from the island 
of Scyros, the scene of his banishment and death, to this place ; and 
as upon that occasion the Athenians were beginning to erect for them- 
selves a new and magnificent city, so they raised for him this noble 
structure, in which he is buried as a man, and worshipped as a god. 

" Hercules, as its sculptures show, is associated with his kinsman and 
companion, Theseus, in the honors of the temple. It is an agreeable 
sight to witness this enduring record of friendship, and also of the 
alliance existing between the nations of Argos and Athens, who are 
represented in the present case by these two heroes ; and who entered 
into the confederacy at the very period when this fabric was erected : 
so that this temple maybe considered as a treaty of peace, consecrated 
by the sanction of religion. Another record of the same amity is pre- 
served in the tradition, that Hercules espoused Melite. from whom the 
district of Athens, in which the temple of Theseus stands, derived it? 




CASTOR AND POLYDEUKES OR POLLUX. 35? 

name. Thus the two heroes are locally connected ; nor are we sur- 
prised to find a temple to Melanippus, the son of the Athenian hero, 
in the same neighborhood." 

CASTOR AND POLYDEUKES OR POLLUX. 

(Ebalus, a king of Lacedsemon, sprung from yu yw 

a scion of the old stem of Inachos, was the 
father of Tyndareos, who succeeded him in the 
government. Tyndareos married Leda, a daugh- 
ter of Thestias, king of iEtolia. 

The beauty of Leda attracted the eyes of 
Zeus; and, descending from his Olympian seat 
under the disguise of a swan, he took refuge in 
her lap, while Aphrodite was pursuing him in the 
shape of an eagle. According to the common 
legend, Leda produced two eggs : from the one came Pollux and He- 
lena, children of Zeus ; and from the other, Oastor and Clytemnestra, 
children of Tyndareos. The former were immortal, the latter mortal. 
Notwithstanding their different descent, Castor and Pollux were in- 
separable, loving one another as dear brothers and friends. Both were 
valiant and glowed with heroic fire, and both were skilled in every 
bodily exercise ; with this difference only, that Castor was pre-eminent 
in the art of riding and managing horses, and Pollux in wrestling. 

They were contemporaries of the most renowned heroes, and accom- 
panied the Argonauts in their expedition to Colchis. On their way 
thither Pollux slew Amycus, a son of Poseidon, in single combat. It 
was also in this voyage that, in the midst of a dreadful storm, two 
flames were seen hovering over the heads of Castor and Pollux, where- 
upon the storm abated. In remembrance of this, whenever fires ap- 
peared to seamen in boisterous weather, they were called Castor and 
Pollux, and considered as a sure sign of health and safety. Nay, the 
Dioscuri (or twin sons of Zeus, under which name Castor and Pollux 
are generally designated) were revered above all other deities as be- 
nign beings, ever present to those who were in danger, and ready to 
aid them — and were addressed in every emergency, on land as well as 
at sea, by the prayers of such as stood in need of assistance. 

After their return from the expedition to Colchis, they were informed 
that, during their absence, Theseus had ravished their sister, Helena, 



358 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

and delivered her to the care and custody of his mother, iEthra, in 
Aphidnse. Castor and Pollux conquered the city, delivered their sis- 
ter, and took with them the mother of Theseus as prisoner ; they, how 
ever, committed no violence in the besieged city, or in the whole terri 
tory of Attica. This forbearing benignity, which attends the heroic 
deeds of the Dioscuri, is probably the chief reason why mortal men 
afterwards looked up to them with truth and confidence, as to friendly- 
assisting genii. 

The fidelity, likewise, with which these inseparable brothers assisted 
each other in dangers, rendered them an object of love and veneration 
to mankind ; and their fraternal friendship is indeed one of the most 
beautiful circumstances which fiction has interwoven into the records 
of the splendid heroic age. 

When Castor and Pollux sued for the daughters of Leucippus, 
Phoebe and Ilaiira, each of them was obliged to win his bride by a com- 
bat with a rival — Castor with Lynceus. and Pollux with Idas, the sons 
of Aphareus. Castor, being mortal, was conquered and slain by Lyn- 
ceus. Although Pollux avenged his brother's death on Lynceus, and 
fought with Idas also, until the latter was struck by a thunderbolt 
from Jupiter, yet he could not awaken his beloved brother from death. 
He then implored Jupiter either to deprive him also of life, or allow 
his brother to share his immortality. Jupiter gave him his choice, 
and Pollux descended one day to his brother, in the abode of the 
shades, in order to enjoy life with him on the next, under the light of 
the sky. 

Human love and veneration often dedicated temples and altars to 
the Dioscuri. Imagination frequently presented them to mortals, 
when in imminent dangers ; they then appeared in the form of two 
youths on white horses, arrayed in shining armor, and bearing little 
flames or stars upon their heads. And thus they were commonly rep- 
resented in works of art, either riding side by side, or standing near 
together, their spears bent, the stars sparkling on their heads, and each 
holding a horse by the bridle. The egg-shaped caps allude to the man- 
ner of their birth. 

The remarkable circumstance of the two brothers living and dying 
alternately, leads to the conjecture that they were personifications of 
some natural powers and objects. This is confirmed by the names in 
the myth, all of which seem to refer to light or its opposite. Thus 



jason. 359 



Leda differs little from Leto, and may be regarded as darkness ; she is 
married to Tyndareos, a name which seems to be of a family of words 
relating to light, flame, or heat ; her children by him or Zeus, that is, 
by Zeus-Tyndareos, the bright god, are Helena (Brightness), Castor 
(Adorner), and Polydeukes (Dewful). In Helena, therefore, we have 
only another form of Selene ; the Adorner is a very appropriate term 
for the day, whose light adorns all nature ; and nothing can be more 
apparent than the suitableness of Dewful to the night. It is rather 
curious that, in the legend, Helena is connected by birth with Poly- 
deukes rather than with Castor. The brothers may also be regarded 
as the sun and moon, to which their names and the form of the myth 
are equally well adapted. 

To proceed to the other names of the legend, Idas and Lynceus, that 
is, Sight and Light, are the children of Aphareus or Phareus, that is, 
Shiner; and the two daughters of Leucippos, or White-horsed (an epi- 
thet of the Dioscuri), are Phoebe, Brightness, and Hilaeira, Joyful, 
which last is an epithet given to the moon by Empedocles. In the 
Cypria, they were called the daughters of Apollo. 

That these were original divinities is demonstrated by their being 
objects of worship. The Tyndarids, Dioscuri, or Kings as they were 
named, had their temples and statues ; as also had the Leucippides, 
who, in perhaps the more correct form of the legend, are their wives. 
Helena, in like manner, had her temples : and there is some reason to 
suppose that she was identified with Eileithyia. The Apharids were 
not objects of worship ; perhaps because they had merely been devised 
as opponents to the Tyndarids, to give a mythic ground for the alter- 
nate life and death of these last, or possibly, because in the legend they 
are Messenians. 

JASON. 

Jason was a shoot of the heroic stem of iEolus, but not the son of a 
god ; and Juno, while she persecuted the sons of Jupiter, took him 
under her especial protection. 

iEolus, Deucalion's grandson, who reigned in Thessaly, was the 
father of Salmoneus, Sisyphos, Athamas, and Cretheus. Salmoneus 
was killed by Jupiter's lightnings ; Sisyphos atoned in the lower world, 
for the tyrannical exercise of his power while on earth ; and Athamas 
died in a state of madness. 

Tyro, a daughter of Salmoneus, became the mother of Pelias and 



360 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Neleus, sons of Neptune. Afterwards marrying her father's brother, 
Cretheus, she gave him a son called iEson, who succeeded his father 
on the throne, and was the parent of Jason, the god-like hero, whose 
mother's name was Alcimede. 

iEson was dethroned by his brother Pelias, but was not obliged to 
fly from the city of Iolcos, which was the seat of the Thessalian kings. 
Of young Jason, however, Pelias was anxious to rid himself; consider- 
ing him as a member of the legitimate royal family who might become 
dangerous to him. The parents of the child, iEson and Alcimede, 
perceiving the intention of the tyrant, spread the rumor that Jason 
was sick, and soon after, that he had died. At the same time, he was 
taken by his mother to Mount Pelion, where the wise Centaur, Cheiron, 
well versed in every science, devoted himself to the education of the 
young hero, sheltering him in his lonely grotto. 

When Jason had attained his growth, and manful courage began to 
awaken in his breast, following the advice of an oracle, he threw the 
skin of a panther over his shoulders, armed himself with a couple of 
darts, and went to the court of Pelias, at Iolcos. 

Pelias had received an oracle, guarding him against a person who 
would one day appear before him with only one sandal, having the 
other foot bare. When Jason, on his way to Iolcos, was going to pass 
the river Anauras, Juno appeared to him in the shape of an old woman, 
and entreated him to carry her over the river. Jason readily complied 
with the request, but on going with his burden through the water, he 
lost one of his sandals in the mud, and thus presented himself before 
the palace of Pelias. On perceiving him, Pelias recollected, with con- 
sternation, the sentence of the oracle. 

When the stranger was required to tell who he was, Jason demanded, 
before all the people, the royal crown which the usurper had received 
from the head of his father, iEson. " The revenues of the kingdom," 
added he, " thou mayest keep and enjoy, but of the supreme authority 
thou must divest thyself." 

Pelias, being enabled, by this proposal, to penetrate the soul of the 
young hero, did not doubt that for the present he might avert the 
storm which was pending over his head, and remove the lion, by offer- 
ing as a bait, the enticing charm of an extraordinary as well as a glo- 
rious enterprise. He therefore feigned a willingness to restore the 
crown to its rightful possessor, or his family, provided the manes of 
Phrixos, another descendant of iEolus, who had found an untimely 



JASON. 361 



death in Colchis, were propitiated, and that golden fleece recovered 
which he had deposited there. 

This Phrixos, who died in Colchis, was a son of Athamas, and a 
grandson of iEolus. Athamas, king of Boeotia, had, by his first wife, 
Nephele, two children, Phrixos and Helle ; but after Nephele's death, 
Athamas married Ino, a daughter of Cadmos, who persecuted these 
two children, and even resolved to deprive them of life. The shade of 
Nephele then appeared to her children, apprising them of the danger 
they were in of becoming the victims of Ino's hatred, unless they would 
seek safety in distant flight ; and, for this purpose, a ram with a golden 
fleece stood ready, which, at the command of the gods, would bear them 
on his back over the land and through the sea. 

Phrixos and Helle mounted the ram, which carried them towards 
the east to the distant country of Colchis, where iEetes reigned, whose 
father was the sun. But they were not both destined to reach that 
country ; for, on their journey, Helle fell from the back of the animal 
into the sea. between Sigeon and the Chersonese, and was drowned. 
This sea was named from her Hellespontos (Helle' s Sea), and still 
retains its name. Her brother Phrixos arrived safely in Colchis, where 
he sacrificed to Zeus Phyxios the ram which had borne him thither ( 
and, as a holy token, suspended the skin, or golden fleece, in a grove 
sacred to Ares. He then married the daughter of JEetes, but soon 
died in a foreign land. 

The report of the golden fleece which had spread over the earth, 
had for a long time excited the desire of every one who wished to 
obtain something particularly excellent. It was in the distant east, 
what the golden apples of the Hesperides were in the west — a treasure 
worthy of the greatest toils, pains, and perils. The image of the ram 
and its richly covered skin generally implies, with the ancients, the 
idea of wealth ; and this probably gave rise to the fiction of the golden 
fleece, involving the ideas of riches and treasures, as well as the means 
of gaining them. 

The miraculous which was intermingled with the tales of the golden 
fleece, and the adventures that were connected with an expedition to a 
far distant land, were most alluring calls on the heroes of yore, for a 
trial of courage, as well as of fortune. No sooner did the words of 
Pelias touch the ear of Jason, than his ardor was excited to perform 
the glorious deed ; and, pledging his word to bring the treasure, oj 



362 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



never to return, he invited the most renowned heroes of Greece to 
embark with him in the bold adventure. 

For making the voyage to Colchis, a ship was built of pines cut from 
Mount Pelion, which, although larger than any other previously con- 
structed, moved lightly and easily, and was therefore called the Argo 
(swift- sailing). From her name, those who embarked in her were called 
Argonauts. 

The mast of the Argo was taken from the forest of Dodona, where 
the oaks were endowed with the power of making predictions ; there- 
fore, the ship was regarded as an animated being, in concord with Fate, 
to which a man might commit himself with confidence. Among the 
number of heroes who accompanied Jason, the following names are most 
conspicuous : Heracles, the son of Zeus ; Castor and Pollux, the Dios- 
curi ; Calais and Zetes, sons of Boreas ; Peleus, the father of Achil- 
leus ; Admetos, the husband of Alceste ; Neleus, the father of Nestor ; 
Meleagros, the Calydonian ; Orpheus, the divine bard of Thrace ; Te- 
lamon, the father of Ajax ; Mencetius, the father of Patroclos; Lyn- 
ceus, the son of Aphareus ; Theseus, the Athenian, and his friend 
Pirithoos, the Lapithsean. 

The fathers of the most renowned heroes who shone in the Trojan 
war, were still in youthful vigor at the time of the voyage to Colchis. 
A race of heroes, they advance with their united force to recover a 
precious treasure ; afterwards, a second race unites to avenge the rob- 
bery of beauty by the destruction of Troy. 

When the heroes were all assembled, fifty in number, the auguries 
being favorable, Jason, standing at the poop, poured a libation from a 
golden cup, and called on Zeus, the Winds, the Sea, the Days, the 
Nights, and the Fate presiding over their return. Thunder then rolled 
in the clouds, lightnings flashed through the sky; Orpheus struck his 
lyre in concert with his voice, and the joyful heroes, each grasping an 
oar, kept time to his harmony. The gods looked down from the sky, 
the nymphs of Pelion gazed in wonder at this first of ships, and Chei- 
ron, leaving his mountain cave, cheered them, and prayed for their 
happy return. The piercing eye of Lynceus penetrated the most dis- 
tant regions, and the experienced pilot, Tiphys, managed the helm with 
skilful hands. For a time all things went on successfully ; when sud- 
denly a dreadful storm befel the adventurers, and forced them to seek 
refuge in the harbor of Lemnos. 



jason. 363 



/ is a remarkable circumstance, that while the heroes were strug- 
gLi^ against the raging elements, several of them made a vow to con- 
secrate themselves, by becoming initiated in the Samothracian myste- 
ries ; just as Heracles, when about to engage in the most dangerous 
enterprise, was first initiated into those of Eleusis. 

At Lemnos, a greater danger threatened the Argonauts than that 
caused by the storm which drove them thither ; for the charms of the 
Lemnian women kept the heroes in bonds, protracting, for some time, 
the progress of their voyage to Colchis. 

Not long before the arrival of the Argonauts at Lemnos, the female 
inhabitants had murdered all the males of the island, except king Thoas, 
who was secreted by his daughter Hypsipyle. The anger of Venus, 
whom the Lemnian women had not sufficiently honored, was the occa- 
sion of this atrocious deed. For the goddess infused into the men of 
Lemnos, who were at that time warring against the Thracians, an in- 
vincible dislike to their wives, and, at the same time, a preference for 
the female slaves who had become their prisoners in the Thracian war. 
Such an insult the women of Lemnos could not bear ; they conspired, 
rose in one night upon their sleeping husbands, fathers, and brothers, 
and murdered them all. Those who conducted the war in Thrace 
were saved by their absence. 

When the Argonauts were landing at Lemnos, they were at first 
opposed by the women, who mistook them for the Lemnians returning 
from Thrace to avenge the death of their fellow-citizens. But as soon 
as they perceived their error, they received the strangers with hospi- 
tality, who remained on the island two years. 

From Lemnos the heroes sailed to Samothrace, where they were 
inspired with new courage by their initiation into the mysteries. On 
landing near Troas, they were abandoned by Heracles, who with Tela- 
mon went into the country in search of Hylas. In the city of Cyzicus, 
on the descent of Mount Dindymus, where the Argonauts next landed, 
they were hospitably received by the king, who bore the same name as 
his city, and who dismissed them with presents. But the night after 
their departure, when the ship was forced back into the harbor by a 
storm, king Cyzicus mistook the heroes for enemies and attacked them 
in a hostile manner. In this fight, Jason had the misfortune to kill 
his kind and friendly host. To atone for this deed, although uninten-, 
tional, he brought offerings on Mount Dindymus to the mother of the 
g«ids, and built a temple there to her honor. The Argonauts thea 



364 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

proceeded on their course, and steering always towards the east, arrived 
in Bebryeia, where the royal crown was worn by Amycus, who chal- 
lenged every stranger to fight him with clubs, and who was at last 
vanquished and slain in a combat with Pollux. 

On their further course, the bold navigators were driven near the 
coast of Thrace by a storm, and compelled to enter the harbor of Sal- 
mydessus, where the prophesying Phineus reigned, whom the immortals 
had punished with blindness. To complete his misery, he was per- 
petually vexed by the daughters of Thaumas, the direful Harpies. Phi- 
neus had delivered up his two sons, the children of his first wife, a 
daughter of Boreas, to the hatred of their stepmother, Idaca, and at 
her calumnious instigation, had even deprived them of sight ; — a crime 
which he was obliged to expiate by his own blindness, while the Har- 
pies, those ghastly birds of prey, with maiden faces, seized upon his 
food, or ruined and defiled whatever he was about to partake. Phi- 
neus was deprived of the external light, but with his mental vision 
anticipated the future, and gave to the Argonauts prudent advice con- 
cerning their further voyage ; and also furnished them with a guide 
to lead them through the Cyanean rocks, or Symplegades, the danger- 
ous passage of which now awaited the bold navigators. Grateful for 
these services, the winged sons of Boreas, Calais and Zetes, by their 
swords affrighted the Harpies from Phineus' table, pursuing them as 
far as the Strophades, where, at the command of the gods, they stopped 
their pursuit, and returned to their companions. From this return, 
those islands derived their name. 

The Cyaneae, or Symplegades, through which the Argonauts were 
obliged to sail, were two immense rocks, immediately opposite each 
other, at the entrance into the Black Sea ; and which seemed, accord • 
ing to the different directions in which they were approached, to open 
and then again to close. This phenomenon gave rise to the ancient 
fiction, that the rocks really opened and closed like a pair of scissors, 
crushing every thing that happened to pass between them as they were 
moving together. Quite natural, therefore, is the subsequent fiction, 
after the Aagonauts had successfully ventured on the passage, and the 
optical illusion was thus discovered, that Neptune had made the rocks 
immovable. 

After having safely passed the Symplegades, the heroes next landed 
in the territory of Lycus, who, being by birth a Greek, gladly received 
the strangers from his native land. Here the pilot Tiphys died, and 



jason. 365 



his place was succeeded by Ancaeus ; and the sacred Argo, after having 
long sustained the beating of the briny flood, and experienced many 
a storm, was at last happily conducted into the longed-for harbor of 
Colchis. It was here, however, that the greatest danger awaited Jason 
the leader of the expedition ; a danger which could hardly be avoided 
without divine assistance. King iEetes received the strangers, not in 
a hostile or even unfriendly manner ; but he prescribed to Jason, whc 
demanded the restitution of the golden fleece, such conditions as he 
thought could not be complied with ; for to the dangers which he had 
planned, the most undaunted hero must necessarily succumb. 

In order to gain the golden fleece, Jason was, in the first place, to 
put two fire-exhaling bulls, sacred to Hephsestos, to an adamantine 
ploughshare, and to break up with them four acres of land, sacred to 
Ares, and which had never before been ploughed. Then he was to 
sow the dragon teeth of Cadmos, which yet remained in the possession 
of JEetes, in the newly-ploughed furrows, and the armed warriors who 
would immediately arise from the dreadful seed, he must kill to the 
last man. This done, he was at last to fight with, and conquer the 
dragon that guarded the golden fleece. 

Medeia, a daughter of iEetes, skilled in charms and witchcraft, had 
scarcely beheld Jason, when, through the influence and disposal of the 
gods, a tender affection for the hero was raised in her bosom, which 
soon kindled to a flame of the most violent passion. 

Jason went to the temple of Hecate to supplicate the mighty god- 
dess, where he was met by Medeia She disclosed her love to him, at 
the same time promising her assistance in the dangers which threatened 
him, and her powerful help in accomplishing his glorious undertaking, 
provided he would swear fidelity to her. Jason complied, and Medeia, 
reciprocating the oath, rendered the hero invincible by means of her 
magical incantations. She gave him a stone which he was to cast 
among the warriors, that would spring up from the dragon-teeth, and 
also herbs, and a potion for lulling to sleep the dragon that guarded 
the golden fleece. 

On the following day, Jason, surrounded by his companions, ap- 
peared on the field of Ares in the presence of the king and a multitude 
of people ; the fire-breathing bulls were about to be set free, and the 
hearts of the assembled multitude were chilled with awe and expecta- 
tion : a deadly silence reigned, and all eyes were anxiously turned 
upon the hero, who alone quietly expected his fire-vounting foes. Fierce 



366 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



and snorting, the bulls rushed upon him ; but the powerful charm with 
which Medeia had armed him, suddenly made them tame and obedient ; 
without resistance they bent their necks under the yoke, suffering 
Jason to put them to the plough, and quietly made the furrows into 
which he sowed the dragon-teeth. No sooner were they scattered, than 
a harvest of armed warriors sprang from the ground, all of them turn- 
ing their swords against Jason. The hero then following the direc- 
tions received by Medeia, flung the enchanted pebble, which she had 
given him for that purpose, into the midst of the thronged crowd of 
his enemies ; this stone had the power of troubling their senses as well 
as hardening their hearts, causing them to rise furiously against one 
another, until the ground from which they had just sprung, was covered 
with their slain bodies. 

Before the king and people could recover from the amazement into 
which this spectacle had thrown them, Jason was already hastening 
towards the grim guardian of the fleece, to lull him to sleep. He suc- 
ceeded, and afterwards killed the monster, and triumphantly held in 
his hand the golden fleece. The conqueror then returned with his 
companions to the ship ; and Medeia, leaving in nightly silence the 
house of her father, followed her lover, and went on board the Argo, 
which immediately set sail. 

iEetes, soon roused by the discovered flight of his daughter, went 
himself with his ships in pursuit of the swift-sailing Argo. Near the 
mouth of the Danube, Medeia descried the sails of her father, and to 
save herself as well as her lover from the impending danger, she adopt- 
ed a measure both cruel and desperate. She had taken her little 
brother Absyrtus, as a kind of hostage, and in the present emergency, 
seeing no other means of safety, she killed, and cut him in pieces, plant- 
ing his head and hands upon a high rock, and scattering the rest of his 
members upon the shore, with the view of retarding her father's pur- 
suit, or of inducing him to desist from it altogether. In order to 
mark this horrible deed in all times to come, several small islands in 
that region were afterwards called Absyrtides. 

Medeia's expectation was realized. Her father, first retarded by 
3ollecting together the remains of his unfortunate son, afterwards de- 
sisted entirely from pursuit, and the Argonauts quietly proceeded on 
their voyage. Having received advice from Phineus not to return to 
their native land by the same course which they had pursue 1 in com- 
ing to Colchis, they sailed up the Danube ; " and when they could as- 



jason. 367 



cend the river no farther, the strong heroes," says the fiction, " took up 
their lightly-built vessel on their shoulders, carrying her for the space 
of four miles over hills and dales, as far as the Adriatic gulf." But 
here, when they were about to embark again, the following oracle was 
heard to issue from the mast of the Argo : " You are not destined to 
reach your home until Jason and Medeia are absolved from the mur- 
der of Absyrtus, after having atoned for their crime by a penalty im- 
posed on them." 

With a view to this atonement, the Argonauts entered the port of 
iEsea, the abode of Circe, a daughter of the sun, and sister of iEetes. 
She, however, refused to absolve Jason and Medeia, by presenting the 
usual offerings to the offended immortals, and by imposing a penalty 
on the criminals ; but announced to them, that they could not blot out 
their guilt until they had reached the promontory of Malea. 

Thence the bold navigators steered towards the dangerous straits of 
Scylla and Charybdis, which they passed under the guidance of Hera. 
By the persuasion of Orpheus, they escaped the danger which threat- 
ened them from the Sirens, and happily reached the island of the 
Phasacians, where, however, they met with an unexpected enemy. After 
the funeral obsequies of Absyrtus had been properly celebrated, the 
Colchian fleet, which had desisted from its pursuit at the mouth of the 
Danube, took another way to intercept the fugitives ; and here, at the 
island of the Phaeacians, it was stationed to watch for them. The anger 
of the Colchians against Medeia, as well as the Argonauts, having in 
the mean time somewhat abated, they demanded no other restitution 
than the person of Medeia, provided she had not yet been married to 
Jason. She had not yet been made the wife of Jason, but the king of 
the Phasacians immediately procured a private celebration of the mat- 
rimonial rites, announcing to the Colchians, on the following day, that 
his guests, Jason and Medeia, were lawfully married ; whereupon the 
former, satisfied with the answer, spread their sails to the wind and 
steered for Colchis. 

The Argonauts, after having taken leave of their friendly host, the 
king of the Phasacians, endeavored to reach the promontory of Malea, 
when suddenly a storm cast them on the Libyan Syrtes, where the ves- 
sel would have been lost but for the appearance of a Triton, who, for 
the reward of a precious tripod which Jason carried with him in the 
ship, promised the heroes to show them the only course by which they 
could escape. After having received the tripod, at the sight of which 



368 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

he was highly delighted, the Triton kept his word, and conducted the 
Argo in safety out of the surrounding Syrtes. Moreover, he presented 
Euphemos, one of the Argonauts, with a clod of earth, as a pledge that 
his descendants should reign in Libya. This pledge was afterwards 
redeemed. 

Argo at last reached the longed-for promontory of Malea, where Ja 
son and Medeia, after having brought rich offerings to the immortal 
gods, obtained absolution of their crime committed against Absyrtus. 
They were now, according to the oracle which they had received from 
the oak of Dodona, as well as the promise of Circe, permitted to expect 
soon to reach their native port. And, indeed, without meeting any 
farther accidents, the Argonauts soon after entered the harbor of Iolcos. 
The good ship Argo was devoted by Jason to Poseidon, on the isthmus 
of Corinth, from whence fiction afterwards transported her to the vaults 
of the sky, where she shines as a glittering constellation. 

The golden fleece was now gained ; but the purpose for which alone 
Jason had exposed himself, as well as his friends, to every imaginable 
danger, was frustrated ; his father, iEson, having in the mean while 
become a clecrepid, childish old man, unable to reign, or to enjoy the 
glorious feats of his son. 

The first request, therefore, which Jason made to Medeia, was, to 
use her magic powers to renew, if possible, the mental as well as phys- 
ical abilities of his father. Medeia, complying with her husband's re- 
quest, infused a new juice of life, prepared of secret herbs, into the 
veins of the old man, so as to make him sensible of the return of his 
gay youth and the renewed strength of life. The daughters of Pelias 
deprived their father of life in imitating the work of Medeia, so that 
iEson now reigned undisturbed, sole king of Iolcos. 

Jason, with Medeia, then went to Corinth, formerly called Ephyra, 
where >ZEetes had reigned before going to the fertile Colchis. Medeia 
took possession of the government for her husband, and they lived 
there quietly during ten years. Behind this calm of peaceful life, 
however, a dreadful storm was lurking, which threatened Jason with a 
tragica 1 fate, as was the case also with Heracles, Perseus and Bel- 
lerophontes. 

Weary of Medeia, whom he always seems to have secretly de- 
spised, he was about to marry Creon's royal daughter, unmindful of the 
revenge of despised jealousy or disregarded faith. Medeia feigned 
patience and mildness, enduring with apparent resignation what she 






MELEAGROS OR MELEAGER. 369 

could not prevent ; she even sent to the bride a costly wedding gar- 
ment. But scarcely had the latter made use of the dangerous present, 
than she suddenly felt a consuming fire raging through her body, which 
produced an agonizing death. Medeia, giving full scope to revenge, 
rained fire upon Creon's palace, which consumed the king himself, 
murdered her two children, and then hastened through the air in her 
chariot drawn by two dragons, leaving Jason to grief and despair, which 
embittered the remainder of his days. 

MELEAGROS OR MELEAGER. 

(Eneus, who reigned in Calydon, was the father of renowned chil- 
dren ; of Deianeira, the wife of Heracles ; of Meleagros and Tydeus, 
whose valorous son, Diomedes, engaged with the gods themselves in 
dangerous combat during the siege of Troy. (Eneus had the misfor- 
tune to draw the wrath of Artemis upon himself as well as his country, 
by having forgotten her divine personage, while he brought thank- 
offerings to all the other deities, for the thriving growth of the fruits 
of the field. 

To punish him and his subjects for this offence, the goddess of the 
forest sent a monstrous boar into the Calydonian land, which wasted the 
fields, and threatened death and ruin to the inhabitants of the surround- 
ing country. (Eneus, anxious to subdue this monster, desired the as- 
sistance of the strongest, both in his own territories and those beyond 
them. Thus the chase of Diana's Boar again united the flower of the 
Greek heroes. 

To hunt the Calydonian Boar, some of those heroes again assem- 
bled who had shared the dangers of the voyage to Colchis. The most 
renowned of the Argonauts who assisted Meleagros in this hunt, were 
Jason, Castor and Pollux, Idas and Lynceus, Peleus, Telamon, Adme- 
tos, Pirithoos, and Theseus. To this noble troop, the brothers of 
Althaea, the wife of (Eneus, and daughter of Thestius, who reigned in 
Pleuron, and Atalanta, the daughter of Schoeneus, associated them- 
selves. Atalanta, like Diana, had devoted herself to a state of virgin- 
ity, and, like her, was a lover of the chase. 

Atalanta first wounded the boar with her arrow ; Meleager then 
cut off the head of the monster, and presented it to her as the deserved 
prize of victory. The brothers of Althaea were offended by this pref- 
erence given to a woman, and disputing the prize, took it from Ata- 
lanta. Diana setting no bounds to her wrath, kindled the spark of 

24 



370 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



anger between Meleager and the sons of Thestius into a flame, that 
burst out in a bloody fight, and gave to the Calydonian chase a tragi- 
cal termination. 

Meleager, in the fray, killed the two brothers of his mother, who, be- 
holding the bodies of the slain, swore to avenge their death, even on 
her own son. An easy, too easy means of vengeance was in her power ; 
for on the birth-day of Meleager, the Fates had placed a piece of wood 
on the hearth near the fire, with the hint that Althaea's new-born son 
should live as long as that piece of wood remained unconsumed. Althaea 
had preserved the fatal billet as a precious treasure, until the moment 
when she was provoked to anger by the death of her brothers. Then, 
seizing it in her passion, she threw it into the blazing fire. As it was 
gradually consuming to ashes, Meleager felt his body withering away, 
and the marrow of his bones drying up, until he died in convulsive 
agony. Scarcely had Althaea heard the cruel result of what she had 
done, than repenting the deed, she put a period to her own life. 

CADMOS, 

Poseidon, says the legend, was by Libya the father of two sons, Belos 
and Agenor ; the former reigned in Egypt, and the latter, having gone 
to Europe, married Telephassa, by whom he had three sons, Cadmos, 
Phoenix, and Cilix, and one daughter, Europa. Zeus, becoming en- 
amored of Europa, carried her away to Crete ; and Agenor, grieved 
for the loss of his only daughter, ordered his sons to go in search of 
her, and not to return until they had found her. They went, accom- 
panied by their mother, and by Thasos, a son of Poseidon. Their long 
search was to no purpose, for they could obtain no intelligence of their 
sister ; and fearing the indignation of their father if they returned 
without her, they resolved to settle themselves in various countries. 
Phoenix therefore established himself in Phoenicia, and Cilix in Cilicia ; 
Cadmos and his mother went to Thrace, where Thasos founded a town, 
calling it after himself. 

After the death of his mother, Cadmos went to Delphi for the pur- 
pose of consulting the oracle about Europa. The answer was, to cease 
from troubling himself about her, but to follow a cow as his guide, and 
to build a city where she should lie down. On leaving the temple, he 
went through Phocis, and meeting a cow belonging to the herds of 
Pelagon, he followed her through Boeotia till she came to where Tbohes 
now stands, where she laid herself down. "Wishing to sacrifice her to 



CADMOS. 371 

Athena, Cadmos sent his companions to the fount of Ares for water ; 
but the serpent that guarded the fount killed a greater part of them. 
Cadmos then fought the serpent and destroyed it ; by the direction of 
Athena he sowed its teeth, and immediately a crop of armed men 
sprang up, who slew each other, either quarrelling or through igno- 
rance ; for it is said that when Cadmos saw them rising, he flung stones 
at them ; and thinking it was done by some one of their number, they 
fell upon and slew each other. Five only survived : and they joined 
with Cadmos to build the city of Thebes. 

For killing the sacred serpent, Cadmos was obliged to spend a year 
in servitude to Ares. At the expiration of that period, Athena herself 
prepared a palace for him, and Zens gave him Harmonia, the daughter 
of Ares and Aphrodite. All the gods assembled in Cadmeia, the pal- 
ace of Cadmos, to celebrate the marriage. The bridegroom presented 
his bride with a magnificent robe, and a collar, the work of Hephnestos, 
and said to be the gift of the divine artist himself. 

Cadmos endeavored to civilize the people whom he had gathered 
around him, and to whom he is said first to have communicated letters.; 
brought by him from Phoenicia. The date given for the settlement of 
this colony is B. C. 1550. 

The offspring of Cadmos and Harmonia, who is sometimes called 
Harmione, were Ino, Agaue, Autonoe, Semele, and a son named Poly- 
doros. All these children were persecuted by an inimical fate, or 
the hatred of Hera, which rested upon their father's house. Semele, 
the mother of Bacchos, was consumed by Zeus 7 lightnings. Agaiie 
married Echion, one of those five warriors who had arisen from the 
dragon teeth. She became the mother of Pentheus, who opposed the 
worship of Bacchos, and was torn in pieces by his own mother, and the 
other votaries of the god. Ino was persecuted by the wrath of Hera, 
because she had taken care of young Bacchos. She was married to 
Athamas, who, seized by a sudden fury, dashed their first son, Zear- 
chus, against a rock, and then pursued the hapless mother, who fled 
with her younger son, Melicertes, to the very verge of a rock on the 
shore, Ino, with her son in her arms, flung herself down, and both 
were henceforth numbered among the deities of the sea ; Ino under 
the name of Leucothea, and Melicertes under that of Palsemon. Both 
were worshipped as benign beings, who assist seafaring people in the 
dangers of their element. Autonoe, the fourth daughter of Cadmos, 
married Aristseos, son of Apollo and king of Arcadia. He was said 



372 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

first to have taught man how to manage bees and raise honey, as well 
as to use the milk of animals. Autonoe became the mother of Actseon. 
who was punished for the crime of beholding Diana when bathing. 

After the various misfortunes which befel their children, Thebes 
became odious to Cadmos and his wife, and they migrated to the coun- 
try of the Enchelians : who, being harassed by the incursions of the 
Illyrians, were told by the oracle, that if they made Cadmos and Har- 
monia their leaders, they would be successful. They obeyed the god, 
and the prediction was verified. Cadmos became king of the Illyrians, 
and had a son named Illyrios. 

Cadmos lived with Harmonia to his latest years ; and in 'order to 
ascribe to them a kind of immortality, fiction suffers them at last to 
be transformed into serpents, and sent by Zeus to the Elysian Plain ; 
or, as some say, they were conveyed thither in a chariot drawn by ser- 
pents. 

When Cadmos left Thebes, he placed his son Polydoros upon the 
throne. Labdacos, the son of Polydoros, married Nicteis ; the daughter 
of Nycteus, and became the father of Laios. At the time of his father's 
death, Laios was a minor, and therefore his uncle Lycos reigned in his 
place over Thebes. 

Antiope, another daughter of Nycteus, beloved by Zeus, and rejected 
by her father, fled to Epopeus, king of Sicyon, who married her. But 
Lycos, having given to the dying Nycteus a solemn promise to avenge 
him on his daughter, killed Epopeus, and carried Antiope prisoner to 
Thebes, where he prepared for her the i^ost cruel treatment, by com- 
mitting her to his wife, Dirce. 

Antiope had borne Jupiter two sons, Amphion and Zethos, who were 
brought up secretly. As soon as she found means to escape, she has- 
tened to her sons, bidding them avenge the injury of their mother. 
Amphion and Zethos immediately invaded Thebes, slew Lycos, expelled 
Laios, and fastened Dirce, by whom their mother had been so cruelly 
treated, to the horns of a wild bull, thus devoting her to a painful 
death* 

Amphion then built the walls of Thebes, with their seven gates ; 
and the persuasive eloquence with which he prevailed on the rude in- 



* The celebrated group in the museum of the king of Naples, known under the name 
of the Farncse Bull, represents this scene. 



(EDIPUS. 



373 



habitants to assist him in this undertaking, has been veiled by fiction 
in the fable, that he moved the stones by the notes of his lyre, so that 
they voluntarily united, and formed themselves into walls and turrets. 
After the death of Amphion and Zethos, the Thebans invited the 
expelled Laios to take charge of the government, which belonged to 
him by hereditary right. He returned and married Jocasta, a Theban 
princess. 

(EDIPUS. 

It had been predicted to Laios that he should have a son who would 
be the murderer of his father. Therefore, when Jocasta became the 
mother of a son, Laios ordered the child to be exposed in a wild de- 
sert. The servant who was intrusted with this commission, perforated 
the ankles of the child, in order to recognize it, if it should ever appear. 
In this condition it was <found by Phorbas, the overseer of the herds 
of king Polybos, who reigned in Corinth. The latter, to whom Phor- 
bas delivered the hapless infant, adopted it, and from its swollen feet. 
gave it the name of (Edipus. 

The foster-parents of (Edipus kept his descent carefully concealed 
from him, so that until he approached to manhood, he believed them 
to be his real parents. But some doubts having been raised in his 
mind as to his birth, he resolved to inquire at the oracle of Apollo. 
The oracle, leaving the question of his descent untouched, confined 
itself to the warning never to return to his native country, because he 
would there slay his own father, and marry his own mother. 

To escape a fate so horrible, (Edipus voluntarily banished himself 
from Corinth, which he supposed to be his native land, and took his 
way towards Thebes. Thus went the hapless youth directly to meet 
that doom of fate which he intended to avoid. For on his journey he 
encountered his father, Laios, in a narrow pass, accompanied only by 
his herald, Poljphontes. (Edipus was ordered to give way; and upon 
his refusal, the herald killed one of his horses, which so exasperated 
him, that he slew the king and Polyphontes. He was unconscious of 
having killed his own father, but he thus made true a part of the oracle 
which he had received at Delphi. 

Upon his arrival at Thebes, (Edipus found the Sphinx in its vicinity : 
a monster in the shape of a lion, with the head of a maiden, the pro- 
geny of Echidna, and sent by Juno to terrify the inhabitants of the 



374 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

city and surrounding country.* The monster, lying on a steep .rock, 
proposed this riddle to all who passed by : " What animal is it that 
goes in the morning upon four feet, at noon upon two, and in the eve- 
ning upon three?" Every one who was unable to interpret this riddle, 
was hurled into the abyss by the Sphinx, and hundreds had already 
perished in this way ere CEdipus arrived. He came and explained the 
riddle. " Man," said he, " as a child, in the morning of life, creeps 
upon hands and feet : at the noon-tide of life, when strength dwells 
in his members, he goes upright on two feet; and in the evening, when 
old age has stolen upon him, he needs a staff for his support, and goes, 
as it were, upon three feet." 

(Edipus had scarcely spoken the last words, when the Sphinx flung 
herself down from the rock , or, according to another fiction, she was 
killed by (Edipus. 

La'ios was dead, and in order to get rid of the monster that deso- 
lated the country, the Thebans had promised his widow, together with 
the throne of Thebes, to the man who should be able to unriddle the 
enigma of the Sphinx. To (Edipus this apparent fortune, envied by 
many, was destined, and thus was the second part of the oracle fulfilled 
without mercy ; for in taking Jocasta, the queen of Thebes, for his 
wife, he ignorantly married his mother, after having slain his father. 
His hard and unfriendly fate, having drawn a veil over all these hor- 
rors, granted him yet for a short time the enjoyment of life. (Edipus 
and Jocasta had two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, and two daughters, 
Antigone and Ismene ; their wretched father being as ignorant of his 
own fate, as of the future destiny of his children. 

Yet the days of this happy ignorance drew to an end. A wasting 
pestilence spread itself over Thebes. (Edipus himself proposed to ask 
the oracle whether any man had drawn down the wrath of the gods by 
secret crimes, and whether the whole land was suffering for the mis- 
deeds of an individual. His advice was followed, and the dreadful 
sentence fell upon himself. He determined not to cease investigating 
until he should succeed in bringing the truth to light, or in setting the 
calumny to rest ; but with every inquiry, the horrible story developed 
itself with additional evidence. 



* The Theban Sphinx differed from the Egyptian. The former had the head of a 
woman, the body of a lion, and was winged ; the latter had the head of a man, the 
body of a lion, and was not winged. 






THE THEBAN WAR. 37fc 



When, at length, every doubt had vanished, and (Edipus, with dread- 
ful certainty, had found himself guilty of the worst crimes, no longer 
able to bear the light of day, he blinded himself. Thus deprived of his 
eyes, he wandered until death in foreign lands, led by the hand of his 
daughter, Antigone. The unfortunate Jocasta strangled herself. 

Eteocles and Polyneices succeeded their father in the government, 
with this arrangement : that each of them should enjoy, by turns, the 
supreme power, every other year. But neither could they escape that 
hostile destiny which hung over Thebes, and the house of Cadmos 

ETEOCLES AND POLYNEICES. 

These two brothers became victims of their own discord, arising 
from envy, and the desire of despotic power. Eteocles first entered 
upon the government ; but when his year had expired, he refused to 
cede the royal authority to Polyneices for the succeeding year. 

Upon this, Polyneices left Thebes, retiring to Adrastos, the ruler of 
Argos, who kindly received him, gave him his daughter in marriage, and 
promised to defend his claim to the Theban throne to the utmost of his 
ability. Tydeus also, the son of (Eneus, and brother to Meleager. 
came at that time as a fugitive to Adrastos, and to him the king of 
Argos married his second daughter. 

The first step taken by Adrastos, in order to secure for his son-in- 
law the portion of authority that was due to him in Thebes, was to 
send Tydeus to Eteocles, that he might prevail on the usurper to share 
with his brother the throne of their common father. But before he 
could reach Thebes, Tydeus was treacherously attacked by armed men, 
who, at the command of Eteocles, lay in wait for him ; and he returned 
to Argos, after narrowly escaping with his life. Upon relating this 
treachery, Adrastos immediately prepared war against Eteocles. 

THE THEBAN WAR. 

Adrastos and his two sons-in-law, Tydeus and Polyneices, united in 
the expedition against Thebes, in which several other heroes were eager 
to share with them the danger and the glory. The valiant Capaneus of 
Messene joined them, and Hippomedon, a son of Adrastos' sister ; also 
Parthenopseos, a handsome and brave youth from Arcadia, the son of 
Melanion and Atalanta. 

Amphiaraos, the husband of Eriphyle, sister of Adrastos, could not 



376 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

for a long time, be prevailed upon to take part in the enterprise, be- 
cause, anticipating the future, his mind foreboded not only the misfor- 
tune that awaited the besiegers of Thebes, but also his own inevitable 
death. He therefore retired to a private place, where he concealed 
himself from Adrastos and Polyneices, until his wife, bribed by the 
latter with a costly necklace, discovered his hiding-place, and thus 
Amphiaraos was obliged to embark in the enterprise against his will. 

The leaders in this expedition were seven in number : Adrastos, 
Polyneices, Tydeus, Amphiaraos, Capaneus, Parthenopaeos, and Hip- 
pomedon. 

On their way to Thebes they met with an accident, which involved 
unfavorable auspices. Hypsipyle, whose name has already been men- 
tioned in the history of the Argonauts, was compelled, after the de- 
parture of Jason and his companions from Lemnos, to leave her home, 
because she had spared the life of her father, Thoas. At the sea-shore, 
whither she had fled and where she was wandering, she fell into the 
hands of pirates, who sold her as a slave to Lycurgos, king of Nemea, 
and there she was employed as nurse to the king's infant son, Opheltes. 

At that time the seven heroes, with their army, were passing through 
the dominions of Lycurgos, and found the royal daughter of Thoas 
with her little nursling in a wood. Hastening to point out a fountain 
to the Greeks, who were suffering from thirst, she left the little Ophel- 
tes alone on the turf; she returned again to the child, who, in the 
mean time, had been killed by a snake. The Greeks were confounded 
at this accident, but celebrated the funeral of the child in a splendid 
manner, and, under the name of Archemorus, instituted sacred games 
in his honor, which were afterwards periodically repeated at Nemea. 

Having completed these funeral rites, the heroes proceeded on their 
way, and arrived under the walls of Thebes. Here the seven leaders 
distributed their army around the seven gates, so that one was to be 
blocked by each of the heroes with his troop, and thus take the city, if 
possible, by a regular siege. 

To oppose each of the leaders in the army of Adrastos, Eteocles 
placed within the walls one whom he regarded as his equal : against 
Tydeus, Melanippus ; against Capaneus, Polyphontes ; against Hip- 
pomedon, Hyperbius ; Actor against Parthenopaeos ; Lasthenes against 
Amphiaraos ; and stationed himself against his brother, Polyneices. 

If the besiegers were animated by their just cause, by hatred against 
the usurper, Eteocles, and by confidence in their superior power, the 



THE THEBAN WAR. 377 



besieged, on the other hand, were urged to the most desperate struggle 
by a still more powerful motive — the fear of hunger. They made a 
furious sally, and a battle ensued equally fatal to both parties. Hip- 
pomedon and Parthenopaeos fell under the swords of the enemy : Cap- 
aneus, who had mounted the walls, was killed by a flash of lightning ; 
Tydeus fell under the hand of Melanippus ; Eteocles and Polyneices, 
the two unnatural brothers, killed each other in single combat ; Am- 
phiaraos was swallowed up by the earth ; and Adrastos owed his life 
only to the swiftness of his good steed, Arion, whose sire was the ruler 
of the waves. 

The sovereignty of Thebes now devolved on Creon, the brother of 
Jocasta. He ordered the corpse of Eteocles to be buried with the 
usual rites and due honors ; but commanded, on pain of death, that the 
bodies of Polyneices and his fallen friends should remain unburied, a 
prey to the fowls of the air. 

Antigone, the faithful daughter of (Edipus, prompted by her sisterly 
love, notwithstanding the interdict of Creon and the danger to which 
she exposed her life, stole out of the city in a moonlight night, and with 
her own hands covered the body of her brother with sand. 

Her disobedience to the command of the tyrant was discovered, and 
she was condemned to die by being buried alive ; but she prevented a 
public execution and a cruel death by strangling herself. 

Haeinon, Creon's son, who had tenderly loved this victim of his fa- 
ther's cruelty, upon finding Antigone dead in her prison, plunged his 
sword in his breast ; neither did Haemon's mother survive the loss of 
her beloved son. Thus stood Creon, bereft of all who had been related 
to him by the sacred ties of nature, accusing his destiny. 

In the mean time, Adrastos had solicited the assistance of Theseus, 
who conquered Thebes, and forced the inhabitants to surrender all the 
slain bodies that belonged to the army of Adrastos, in order to their 
interment with solemn funeral rites. 

The misfortunes attending this war were insufficient to extinguish 
the enmity that subsisted among the sons of the fallen heroes. Ten 
years after, it burst forth in a new war, which, from its being carried 
on by the descendants of the former leaders, was called the war of the 
Epigones. 

Creon was succeeded on the throne of Thebes by Laodamas, a sou 
of Eteocles. Thersander, the son of Polyneices, assisted by the sons 
of those heroes who were j?lain in the former war, together with iEgia- 



378 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



leus, the son of Adrastos, undertook a new expedition against Thebes, 
conquered Laodainas, and seized upon the royal authority, of which his 
father Polyneices had been unjustly deprived. Laodamas fled to 
Illyria, which had formerly been also the asylum of Gadmos. In the 
first Theban war, Adrastos was the only one of the leaders who escaped ; 
in the second, his son, iEgialeus, was the only one who fell. 

Upon one of the rarest and most precious monuments of ancient 
sculpture, which is preserved in a German museum of antiquities, the 
heroes are represented who, under the command of Adrastos, besieged 
Thebes. The group consists of five persons, under each of whom the 
name is engraved, and both figures and letters prove the high antiquity 
of the work. The heroes represented are, Adrastos, Tydeus, Polynei- 
ces, Amphiaraos, and Parthenopaeos. They appear to be assembled 
for the purpose of holding a new council on their affairs after a defeat. 
In the midst of them sits Amphiaraos, with dejected countenance, fore- 
seeing his own death, as well as that of his associates. Opposite to him 
Polyneices is seated, leaning his head upon his hand, as if in deep, 
melancholy musings. On the side of Amphiaraos appears Partheno- 
paeos, seated also on a chair, with his hands drawn round his knees in 
a quiet, thoughtful posture. Adrastos has risen from his seat, and 
seems willing to hasten again to the field of battle, being armed with a 
shield and spear. Tydeus, who is also armed, is following him, but 
with less spirit in his countenance, and with downcast look. In this 
beautiful group a gradation of feeling and inward emotion, as it were, 
is expressed from Polyneices, whose head rests upon his hand, to Adras- 
tos, who is courageously hastening to the battle-ground. 

THE PELOPIELE. 

Pelops, a son of that Tantalos, who, after having been raised by the 
gods even to their own assembly, was hurled down by them into the 
depths of Tartaros, came from Phrygia to (Enoinaos, king of Pisa, by 
whom he was hospitably received. Struck by the charms of the beau- 
tiful Hippodameia, the king's daughter, Pelops requested her from her 
father as his wife. But it had been predicted to (Euomaos that his 
son-in-law would deprive him of life ; and he therefore proposed to 
every suitor for his daughter to contend with him in the chariot race, 
putting to death all whom he overtook in the course. The race was 
from the banks of the Cladios in Elis to the altar of Poseidon, at the 
isthmus, and was run in the following manner : (Enomaos, placing his 



THE PELOPID.E. 3?S 



daughter in the chariot with the suitor, gave him the start ; he then 
followed with a spear in his hand, with which, on overtaking the suit- 
or, he ran him through. Thirteen had already lost their lives when 
Pelops appeared. 

il In the dead of night," says Pindar, " Pelops went down to the 
margin of the sea, and invoked the god who rules it. Suddenly Po- 
seidon stood at his feet ; and he conjured him by the memory of his 
affection, to grant him the means of obtaining the lovely daughter of 
(Enomaos, declaring, that even if he should fail in the attempt, he 
regarded fame beyond inglorious old age. Poseidon, assenting to his 
prayer, gave him a golden chariot, and horses of winged speed." 

Pelops then went to Pisa, and by alluring promises prevailed on 
Myrtilos, the charioteer of (Enomaos, to adjust the king's chariot in 
such a manner that it would break down in the middle of the course. 
The king was thrown out and lost his life, when Hippodameia became 
the bride of Pelops. To celebrate the wedding, Poseidon assembled 
the Nereides upon the strand of the sea. and raised a bridal chamber 
of the waves, which arched in bright curves over the marriage bed. 

After his marriage with Hippodameia, Pelops, unwilling to fulfil his 
promise to Myrtilos for the aid he had given him, threw him unawares 
from a rock into the sea, which from him derived the name of Myrtsean. 
One misfortune after another followed this act of injustice and cruelty, 
although the power of Pelops increased to such a degree, that the 
whole Peninsula of Greece was called after him Peloponnesus. 

Hippodameia had two sons, Atreus and Thyestes, who became jeal- 
ous of their father's affection for their step- brother, Chrysippos, and put 
him to death. Pelops supposed Hippodameia to have instigated this 
murder, and upon being charged with it, she destroyed herself, and 
her two sons fled from the wrath of their father. 

Atreus went to Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, who received bim 
kindly, and gave him his daughter Areope in marriage. After the 
death of Eurystheus, Atreus mounted the throne of Myceuse 

Thyestes followed Atreus, and shared his brother's good fortune ; 
but soon brought reproach and misfortune upon himself by his own 
misdeeds. During the absence of Atreus, Areope bore two sons to 
Thyestes. As soon as Atreus became apprised of it, he expelled them, 
as well as their father from his dominions. Thyestes, breathing 
revenge, contrived to get a son' of Atreus into his power, and educated 
him as his own, at the same time instilling into his youthful heart a 



3&Q GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

deadly hatred against his father, and finally sent him away to commit 
a murder at which the Sun veils his face. 

But the youth was unsuccessful in his attempt, and upon the discov- 
ery of his design, he was put to death under the most cruel tortures ; 
and Atreus learned too late that by his command his own son, instead 
of his brother's, had suffered a cruel death. Atreus, now brooding over 
a still deeper revenge, feigned a reconciliation with his brother, and by 
various marks of affection induced him to come to Mycenae and bring 
his sons with him. He then had them secretly murdered and their 
flesh served up on the table at which their father sat. After Thyestes 
had eaten the food prepared for him, Atreus cast their heads and 
hands before his eyes. " On beholding the scene," says the fiction, 
41 the Sun swiftly turned back his course." 

Thyestes then fled to Sicyon, where he had a son by his daughter 
Pelopia, whose name was iEgisthos, who, on attaining the years of 
manhood, murdered Atreus, and expelled his sons Agamemnon and 
Menelaos from the kingdom, when Thyestes usurped the royal throne 
of Mycenae. 

The fugitive sons of Atreus found a friendly reception at the court 
of Tyndareos, king of Lacedaemon, where each married a daughter of 
their host ; Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Menelaos, the beautiful 
Helena, who afterwards brought wo throughout Greece and destruc- 
tion on Troy. The two brothers avenged the death of their father, 
Atreus, and once more expelled Thyestes from Mycenae. Agamem- 
non then took the reins of government in his father's dominions, while 
Menelaos succeeded Tyndareos in the government of Sparta. 

Menelaos and Helena had no children. Agamemnon and Clytem- 
nestra had two daughters, Iphigeneia and Electra, and one son, Ores- 
tes. 

When Agamemnon afterwards took the chief command of the army 
destined to call Troy to account for the offence which his brother 
Menelaos had suffered from Paris, forgiving iEgisthos, the murderer 
of his father, he became reconciled to him, and even intrusted him with 
the care of Clytemnestra and his house during his absence. iEgisthos, 
however, abused this confidence, misleading Clytemnestra to infidelity 
and bringing ruin upon her husband. For when Agamemnon return- 
ed to Mycenae after an absence of ten years, to enjoy the remainder of 
his days in quiet and domestic happiness, he was murdered by rEgi* 
thos and Clytemnestra. 



THE PELOPID^E. 381 



With regard to the children of Agamemnon. Iphigeneia was to have 
been sacrificed on entering upon the expedition against Troy : but was 
rescued by Diana, who carried her to Tauris. where she became a 
priestess in her temple. Orestes, whose life was threatened with great 
danger from the hands of iEgisthos, was secretly sent by his sister to 
Strophios, king of Phocis, and the husband of Agamemnon's sister. 
Electra remained at home, exposed to the abuse of an unnatural 
mother. 

After the death of her husband. Clytemnestra, fearing neither gods 
nor men, married iEgisthos, and put the royal crown of Mycenae on 
his execrable head. But Destiny had already decreed the punishment 
of that guilty couple, although it was to be executed only by the means 
of a new crime. 

In Orestes, Agamemnon's son, rose an avenger both of his father's 
death and his mother's infamy. A false report, intentionally circu- 
lated, had announced him as dead ; and while iEgisthos and Clytem- 
nestra rejoiced in the thought of being rid of hiin, Orestes was plan- 
ning their destruction. As soon as Orestes felt his arm strong enough 
to meet a foe with his sword, he went to Mycenae and slew the mur- 
derer of his father, not sparing his own mother who shared in the 
crime. But on account of this horrible deed, Orestes was punished 
by the Furies wherever he went ; that is to say, his conscience would 
not allow him any rest, and suffered him not to be reconciled to him- 
self, until he went to Delphi and consulted the oracle of Apollo, which 
promised him alleviation of his torments if he would go to Tauris, and 
carry the statue of Diana from thence to Greece. 

Orestes had been brought up with Pylades, the son of king Stro- 
phios, at Phocis, and both were so intimately and inseparably united 
by the tie of friendship, that their union became proverbial in anti- 
quity, and is so even in our own times. This faithful friend, Pylades, 
who had never left Orestes during all his sufferings, was now his com- 
panion on the voyage to Tauris. It was there an old and barbarous 
custom to bring human offerings to Diana, the severe goddess who 
was the tutelary deity of the country, and whose image Orestes was to 
carry away. Orestes and Pylades had no sooner landed, than they 
were made prisoners, and doomed to be for ever separated by the sac- 
rifice of one of them to Diana. In the trying hour, when the sentence 
of the high priest was received, each of the friends offered his life tc 



382 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



save that of the other. A contest that was pleasing in the sight of 
the gods, and worthy of heavenly assistance. 

Orestes recognized his sister Iphigeneia, the priestess of Diana, and 
made himself known to her; and she found means not only to bring 
the statue of the goddess on board her brother's ship, but also to res- 
cue both the friends and fly with them to Greece. The oracle of Apollo 
proved true. The Furies ceased to torment Orestes, who henceforth' 
reigned quietly over Mycenae, and the wrath of the gods, which had 
borne so long and so heavily upon the house of Pelops, seemed now to 
abate. 

G-oethe. the author of :{ Iphigeneia in Tauris," gives to the ancient 
representation a very ingenious and beautiful turn. According to him, 
the oracle of Apollo promises tranquillity to Orestes. " if he would 
carry the sister to Greece, who remained in the sanctuary at Tauris 
against her will."' Orestes, who was not aware that his s'ster lived in 
Tauris, was necessarily led to apply the word sister to Diana, the sister 
of Apollo, who by way of distinction was often thus designated. But 
when Orestes unexpectedly found his own sister, who indeed remained 
in Tauris against her will, he was allowed to apply the word sister to 
her ; and Iphigeneia was neither obliged to steal the statue of Diana, 
nor to commit a treason against Troas, the king of the island, who had 
always been her benefactor, and who dismissed her in a kind and 
friendly manner. 

ACHILLEUS OR ACHILLES. 

Achilles was the son of Peleus (a descendant of Zeus) and of Thetis, 
the goddess of the sea At the festivity of their marriage, the gods 
brought gifts, the Muses sang, the Nereides danced, and Ganymedes 
poured forth nectar for the guests. 

When Achilles was born, Thetis plunged him in the river Styx, 
which made him invulnerable in every part except the heel, by which 
she held him. And in this heel he received a fatal wound. 

Achilleus, like the other heroes, was reared by the wise Centaur 
Cheiron. A fine picture represents him as a beautiful youth, standing 
near Cheiron on the sea-shore, receiving a visit from Thetis, who is 
seated on a car drawn by dolphins With a look of the most animated 
delight, he is displaying to his mother the skill he has acquired in the 
musical art. 

In the Ilias. Achilleus appears as one of the most prominent heroes. 



ACHILLEUS OR ACHILLES. 383 



\t\ ueli remarks, that " each individual of Homer forms a class, expres- 
ses and is circumscribed by one quality of heroic power ; Achilleus 
alone unites their various but congenial energies. The grace of Ni- 
reus, the dignity of Agamemnon, the impetuosity of Hector, the mag- 
nitude, the steady prowess of the great, the velocity of the lesser Ajax, 
the perseverance of Ulysses, the intrepidity of Diomede, are emanations 
of energy that re-unite in one splendid centre fixed in Achilles." 

When Nestor, who had lived through two ages, and was then reign- 
ing over Pylos in the third, endeavored, during the siege of Troy, to 
allay the contention that existed between Achilles and Agamemnon, 
he reminded them at the commencement of his speech, that he had 
been living and communing with stronger men than the present age 
produced ; with Ceneus, Dryas, Pirithoos, and Theseus, with whom no 
man would dare to enter into combat ; and moreover, they had all lis- 
tened to and been guided by his advice. Achilleus and Agamemnon, 
therefore, he added, might do the same. 

Thus Nestor describes the heroes before the time of the Trojan war ; 
and the bard of the Iliad in his turn represents the heroes of that war, 
as having far surpassed in strength the men of his age. " Hector,' 1 
says he, " took up a stone, which two of the strongest men living in our 
times could scarcely raise from the ground, and with ease flung it 
against the door of the Greek wall, and with such force, that the leaves 
sprung at once from their hinges." 

Men whom Prometheus had first formed of clay, though odious to 
the reigning gods, and deprived by them of fire — destroyed, except a 
few, by several deluges, gradually rose by their own efforts to a noble 
self-esteem, and the appreciation of their inward powers, and became 
assimilated to the immortal gods. Beholding the god-like heroes who 
rose from the midst of her, Humanity became sensible of her worth 
and her higher destination ; and the gods, now becoming, as it. were, 
reconciled to mankind, took more and more : aterest in their transac- 
tions and their fates. Thus divinity and humanity approached nearer 
and nearer, till at last, in the war with Troy, the gods themselves took 
part, and were wounded by mortal hands. 



384 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



ILION OR TROY. 

A history of Troy embraces events that are divided into three pe- 
riods. Ante-Homeric. Homeric, and Post-Homeric. 

Ante-Homeric. — Zeus and Electra, the daughter of Atlas, had two 
sons. Dardanos and Iasion The latter was the favorite of Cybele, for 
which reason Zeus struck him with lightning. Dardanos. afflicted 
with the death of his brother, left Samothrace, where they had dwelt 
together, and passed over to the main land, where Teucros, the son of 
the river Scamandros, and the nymph Ideea then reigned, from whom 
the people were called Teucrians. He was well received by this prince, 
who gave him his daughter Bateia in marriage, and a part of his terri- 
tory, on which he built a town called Dardanos. On the death of Teu- 
cros, he named the whole country Dardania. 

Dardanos left two sons, Ilos and Erichthonios, the former of whom 
died childless ; the latter succeeded to the kingdom, and married 
Astyoehe, daughter of the Simoi's. and had a son named Tros, who 
succeeded him on the throne. Tros married Callirrhoe, daughter of 
the Scamandros, and had one daughter, Cleopatra, and three son -;. Ilos. 
Assaracos, and Ganymedes. The last was admired by Zeus for his 
beauty, who, in the shape of an eagle, carried him to Olympos. where 
he made him cupbearer to the gods. As a compensation for bis loss. 
Zeus gave Tros some horses of the Olympian breed. 

Assaracos married a daughter of the river Simo'is, and was the grand- 
father of Anchises. who was beloved by Aphrodite, the mother of iEueias. 

Ilos went to Phrygia, and in games of wrestling given by the kiDg, 
won fifty youths and as many maidens. The king also, in obedience 
to an oracle, gave him a spotted cow, and told him to build a city w-here 
she should lie down. Ilos followed the cow till she came to the hill of 
Ate (Mischief ) ) where he built the town of Ilion. named from himself. 
He then prayed to Zeus to give him a sign ; and the following day he 
found the Zeus fallen Palladium, the image of Pallas Athene, lying 
before his tent. 

Laomedon, the son of Ilos. married Stryroo, the daughter of the 
Scamandros, by whom she had Tithonos (who was carried off by Eos). 
Lampos, Clytios, Hiketaon. Priamos. and Hesione. By the nymph 
Calybe he had a son, named Bucolion. 

Priamos reigned over Ilion after the death of his father, and was the 
last king of Troy. When Heracles took the city of Troy, Priamos 



ILION OR TROY. 385 



•was among the number of prisoners, but was redeemed by his sister 
Hesione, whom Heracles had given to Telamon as a reward for his 
valor. She was allowed to choose one among the captives, and when 
she had fixed upon her brother Podarkes, Heracles replied, that he 
must first be made a slave, and then by some gift she might redeem 
him. She took the golden veil from her head, and gave it as a price 
for his purchase ; and hence he was afterwards called Priamos (pur- 
chased), instead of Podarkes (swift-foot). 

Heracles placed Priamos on his father's throne, when he employed 
himself with well-directed diligence in embellishing the city of Ilion. 
He married Hecabe (Hecuba), a daughter of Dymas the Phrygian, by 
whom he had nineteen children, of whom the chief were Hector, Paris 
or Alexandros, Deiphobos, Helenos, Troilos, Polites, Polycloros, Cas- 
sandra, Creusa, and Polyxene. iEsacos, the soothsayer, predicted that 
Paris would prove the ruin of his country, and recommended that the 
babe should be exposed to perish. He was therefore committed to a 
servant to be left on mount Ida, who, on returning to the place at the 
end of five days, found that a bear had suckled the infant. Struck 
with the incident, he took home the child, reared him as his own son, 
and named him Paris. Paris afterwards distinguished himself by his 
strength and courage in repelling robbers from the flocks, and the 
shepherds then gave him the name of Alexandros. 

Ilion was the principal theatre of tragic events among those coun- 
tries which lay without the boundaries of G-reece. " A day was to come 
in which Ilion should fall, and Priam's royal race be extinguished." 
This was the decree of Destiny, against which neither gods nor men- 
could prevail; all circumstances must concur to bring about its ac- 
complishment. 

Eris, the goddess of discord, enraged at being the only one of the 
celestials who had not received an invitation to the marriage of Peleus 
with the silver-footed Thetis, contrived to throw into the assembly of 
the gods who were celebrating the nuptials a golden apple, which bore 
the inscription, " Destined to the fairest." Juno, Minerva, and Venus 
were unanimously acknowledged the most worthy to contend for the 
prize. 

None of the gods being willing to undertake the office of awarding 
it, and thereby incur the inevitable risk of offending two powerful 
beauties of Olympos, Jupiter commanded Mercury to lead the three 
deities to mount Ida. and intrust the decision to Paris, whose judg 

25 



386 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 




ment was to be definitive. The three goddesses, consenting to this, ap- 
peared before him, each privately endeavoring to influence him by the 
promise of such gifts as she thought most likely to bias his judgment. 
The majestic Juno, while she haughtily demanded the prize as her 
right, signified her intention to confer the greatest riches and dignity 
upon the giver of it. Minerva offered him a diadem, the symbol of 
thrones, as well as the pure and lasting pleasure with which wisdom 
rewards her votaries. At last Yenus advanced : " I will, give thee a 
wife," said she, c: whose exquisite beauty will induce mortals to say, 
were Venus to descend upon earth, she would appear in such a form 
as Helena's." The shepherd awarded the golden apple to Venus. 
Venus was intent upon the fulfilment of her promise, while Paris suf- 
fered the unrelenting enmity of her two disappointed rivals, which 
was extended also to his whole family, and the entire Trojan race. 
Soon after this event, Priamos proposed a contest among his sons 



ILION OR TROY. 38? 

and other princes, promising to reward the conqueror with one of his 
finest bulls from Mount Ida. On sending to procure the animal, it 
was found in the possession of Paris, who reluctantly yielded it up. 
The shepherd, desirous of recovering his favorite, went to Ilion, and 
entered the lists of the combatants. 

Paris proved successful against every competitor, and gained an 
advantage over Hector himself. The prince, irritated at finding him- 
self vanquished by an unknown stranger, pursued* him closely, and 
Paris must have fallen a victim to his brother's resentment, had he not 
fled to the altar of Jupiter. This sacred place of refuge saved his life. 
Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, struck with the similarity of Paris' 
features to those of her own brothers, inquired his birth and age. From 
these circumstances she soon discovered that he was her brother, and 
as such, she introduced him to her father. Priamos, forgetting the 
alarming predictions of iEsacos, acknowledged Paris as his son, and 
all enmity instantly ceased between him and his brother. 

Priamos, having reigned for many years in great prosperity, ex- 
pressed a wish to recover his sister Hesione, who had redeemed him 
from captivity. To carry this plan into execution, he manned a fleet, 
and gave the command of it to Paris, at the same time ordering him 
to bring back Hesione. At the instigation of "Venus, Paris proceeded 
on his memorable voyage to Greece, from which the soothsaying Cas- 
sandra in vain endeavored to detain him. 

Arriving at Sparta, where Menelaos, the husband of Helena, was 
reigning, he met with a hospitable reception ; but Menelaos, having 
soon after sailed to Crete, Paris availed himself of his absence, gained 
the affections of Helena, and bore her away to his native city, together 
with a large portion of wealth belonging to her husband. 

Helena was the daughter of Jupiter and Leda, and foster-daughter 
of Tyndareos. king of Lacedcemon. The fame of her beauty had spread 
over all Greece, and drew many kings to the court of Tyndareos, in 
the Lope of obtaining her as a wife. While Tyndareos was flattered 
at seeing his daughter, and consequently himself who had the disposal 
of her, so highly honored, he entertained the well-grounded fear, that 
since she could be given to but one of the suitors, the pretended friend- 
ship of the rest might change to hatred and revenge, which would 
become dangerous to him. 

In this dilemma he consulted Ulysses, king of Ithaca, who was re- 
nowned for his prudence throughout all Greece. Ulysses advised him 



388 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

to assemble all the suitors of Helena, and require of them a solemn 
oath, that they would acquiesce in her choice, and with their united 
power protect the preferred lover against every one who might dispute 
with him the quiet possession of his rightfully gained treasure 

Tyndareos followed his advice. The assembled kings submitted to 
his proposal, and Helena made choice of Menelaos, brother to Agamem- 
non, king of Mycenae. They lived happily together until Paris entered 
Sparta, and repaid the kindness of Menelaos with the blackest ingrat 
itude, by persuading Helena to leave her husband, and accompany him 
to Troy. 

Menelaos, deprived of his adored wife, became incensed, and caused 
all Greece to re-echo his complaints against Priam's treacherous son. 
The kings were reminded of the oaths they had taken, and hastened tc 
act accordingly. Every soul was exasperated against Paris, not only 
on account of his having carried off a citizen of a foreign country, but 
particularly for his having so grossly violated the sacred rights of hos- 
pitality. Ambassadors were immediately despatched to Priamos to 
complain of the offence perpetrated against all Greece, and also to re- 
claim the ravished Helena ; but the old, hapless king, influenced by the 
machinations of his son, and by his own paternal love, suffered them to 
return, without granting them their just demand. 

The kings of Greece, with Agamemnon at their head, then formed 
a coalition, swearing to overthrow the city of Troy. Each one fitted 
out and manned as many ships as he had at his disposal, and the whole 
fleet assembled in the harbor of Aulis. The chief leaders in this war 
were — Agamemnon, king of Mycenae ; Menelaos, king of Sparta ; Nes- 
tor, king of Pylus ; Diomedes, the son of Tydeus ; Ajax, the son of 
Telamon : Odysseus, king of Ithaca; Patroclos, the son of Menoetius : 
Podaleirios and Machaon, the sons of Asclepios ; Philoctetes, the Lvn 
companion of Heracles ; Sthenelos, the son of Capaneus ; Thersandrc^ 
the son of Polyneices ; and Idomeneus, the grandson of Minos. 

The heroes wished particularly to obtain the assistance of Achillea. 
His mother had seen with pleasure the warlike ardor of her son, but 
knowing that he must perish in the flower of his age, after having 
achieved the most brilliant exploits, she prevailed upon Lycomedes to 
receive him in the dress of a female, among the attendants of his daugh- 
ter, Deidameia. The Greeks discovered the artifice, and sent Diome- 
des. Odysseus, and Agyrtes to the palace, disguised as merchants. 
They had concealed arms in their dress, and also amon b '".he articles 



ILION OR TROY. 389 



of traffic offered to Deidameia and her attendants. Each selected what 
best pleased her taste. Achilleus seized upon a spear and lance, when 
he was recognized by Odysseus. The trumpet of Agyrtes still more 
excited his warlike ardor, and he left Deidameia in tears, who had 
conceived a tender passion for him, and joined the army of the Greeks. 

Agamemnon, the most powerful of the Grecian kings, was chosen 
chief of the expedition. The army then offered a solemn sacrifice, dur- 
ing which a serpent appeared which devoured nine little birds in their 
nest, and afterwards their mother. Calchas interpreted the presage 
by saying that the siege would last ten years. 

The fleet lay a long time in the harbor waiting for a fair wind. 
Agamemnon, having killed a deer in the chase, boasted that he was 
superior in skill to Diana. The offended goddess sent adverse winds 
to detain them, and through the mouth of the augur, Calchas, demand- 
ed Iphigcneia, Agamemnon's daughter, as a propitiatory sacrifice. 
Iphigeneia, accompanied by her mother, was conducted to the altar of 
the indignant goddess, and the sacrificial knife already Hashed in the 
hand of the priest, when she was involved in a cloud by Diana, and 
transported to Tauris. A roe stood in the place of Iphigeneia. 

After Diana was propitiated, the fleet steered with a fair wind out of 
the harbor of Aulis, and landed safely on the shores of Troas, where 
siege was immediately laid to the city of Troy. 

Meanwhile, Priam was spending the remainder of a long and peace- 
ful life in the midst of a numerous family. The industrious citizens, 
whose commerce flourished, lived in affluence and tranquillity, and the 
husbandman exulted in the hope that his labors would meet with a due 
reward. In fine, that harmony so beneficial, so requisite to the peace 
of society, prevailed in Troas. 

An army of Greeks now makes its appearance, and universal con- 
fusion ensues. Fear takes possession of every breast The inhabitants 
of the country seek refuge in the city, the gates of which are instantly 
closed. The brave Hector flies to the ramparts. His example cheers 
the most disheartened. They gather round him. follow him in every 
sally, and for ten years resist every effort of the Greeks. 

In this war all the celestials took part, espo ising either the side of 
the Greeks or that of the Trojans. Imperial Jove sat on the top of 
Mount Ida, holding the balance in his mighty hand, and directing the 
fate of the combatants. In favor of the Greeks were the majestic Juno, 
the queen of the heavens; the severe Pallas- Athene, the goddess of 



390 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

wisdom ; Neptune, the ruler, of the waves ; Vulcan, the god of fire ; 
and Mercury, the swift messenger of the immortals. On the side of 
the Trojans stood Venus, the goddess of beauty ; Apollo, the god of 
music ; Diana, the goddess of the chase, and Latona. Mars, as the god 
of war, went from one army to the other, siding now with the Greeks, 
and now with the Trojans. 

Homeric. — The cause of the detention of the Greeks for ten years 
before the city of Troy, without being able to get possession of it, was 
the wrath of Achilles against Agamemnon, who had deprived him of 
his slave, the fair Briseis. Agamemnon had received the beautiful 
Chryse'is as a part of the booty at the taking of Thebes. Her father, 
who was a priest of Apollo, went to the camp of the Greeks, supplica- 
ting for the release of his daughter, and offering an ample ransom. 
Agamemnon refused to release Chryse'is on any terms ; and moreover, 
loaded the wretched old man, who stood before him supplicating for 
the restitution of his beloved and only child, with ignominious words 
and menaces. Perceiving that his entreaties were ineffectual, the priest 
lifted up his hands to Apollo, praying him to avenge the injury done 
to his servant, and to punish the cruelty of the Greeks. Apollo heard 
the supplication of the wretched father, and highly incensed against 
Agamemnon, as well as his followers, shot several of his arrows into 
the camp of the Greeks, thus causing a pestilence that swept away 
multitudes of the people. 

At length, through the augur Calchas, it was revealed by whose 
guilt, and for what cause, the people of Greece were suffering. Aga- 
memnon, at the entreaties of all his allies, could no longer refuse to 
restore Chryseis to her father, but at the same time, he demanded to 
be indemnified for his loss, by another part of the booty, which had 
already been divided. Achilles, indignant at his pride and selfishness, 
rebuked him with great severity ; and when Agamemnon threatened 
him. he was even on the point of drawing his sword against the chief, 
but was restrained by the goddess of wisdom, who grasped his yellow 
locks. 

Agamemnon, still more enraged at the opposition on the part of 
Achilles, insisted with the greater obstinacy on receiving an indemnity 
for the loss of his slave ; and to avenge himself upon the bold son of 
Thetis, he carried off Briseis by force from his tent. Upon this act of 
violence and injustice, Achilles retired to the lonely shore o f the sea. 



ILION OR TROY. 391 



and stretching forth his hands to his mother, implored her vengeance 
upon the haughty king of Mycenae, by inducing the gods to assist the 
Trojans, and to withdraw their aid from the Greeks ; so that while he 
declined taking part in the war, these might feel the want of his strong 
arm, and experience the effects of his wrath. 

Thetis heard the prayers of her son, and, hastening to the throne of 
Jupiter, besought the ruler of gods and men to bestow victory upon 
the Trojans, and thus avenge her son on the proud Agamemnon and 
the ungrateful Greeks, reminding him, at the same time, of the assist- 
ance he had once received from her when his sovereignty was endan- 
gered by a conspiracy of the other deities, Jupiter complied with the 
request of his benefactress ; prohibited all the gods in the strictest 
terms from assisting in any manner the besiegers of Troy, and upon 
Hector, the chief of the besieged, who made frequent and successful 
sallies, he bestowed immortal glory. 

Too late did Agamemnon repent of the offence which he had given 
to the valiant Achilles. Too late did all the Greeks repent of having 
suffered this offence to be committed against one, who alone was able 
to save them from destruction by his mighty arm. Their attempts to 
reconcile Achilles, and the entreaties by which they endeavored to 
induce him again to take up his spear in their behalf, were all in vain. 
He had closed his ears to all their prayers, as well as their promises ; 
his resolution was not to be shaken. At last, however, when the Tro- 
jans, after they had vanquished the Greeks in a bloody battle, assailed 
their camp, and were even casting fire into their ships, Achilles, moved 
by the prayers and entreaties of his beloved friend Patroclos, permitted 
him to array himself in his own armor, and to lead on a troop of his 
myrmidons against his enemies. 

When the Trojans beheld the armor of the hero, they supposed that 
the wearer was Achilles himself, and fled like a flock of sheep at the 
approach of the wolf. Although the death of Patroclos was decreed 
by Destiny, yet he was permitted, before he fell, to gain a never-fading 
glory ; for Sarpedon, Jupiter's son, together with many other valiant 
heroes, were subdued by his sword, and went down to the dominions 
of Pluto. But his own fate was fast approaching. Apollo stood be- 
hind him covered with night, and struck him with his broad hand on 
his neck and shoulders, so that his eyes grew dim. The god then 
puLed the helmet from his head, which rolled under the feet of the 
QDrses. broke the heavy spear in his hand, mounted with brass, and 



M2 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

stripped him of his breast-plate. While Patroclos, stunned, could 
scarcely support himself on his staggering limbs, Hector gave him the 
deadly stroke. The soul of Patroclos went down to Orcus, complain- 
ing of her fate, because she had left behind her the strength of youth. 

When Achilles heard of the death of his beloved Patroclos, his wrath 
against Agamemnon and the Greeks gave place to nobler feelings. 
His soul was filled with distress and grief ; and his eyes wept tears of 
blood over the body of his departed friend. In this mournful situa- 
tion he was found by his mother, who had risen from the deep, where 
his lamentations had reached her ears. Although she made known to 
him, after her parental consolations had in some measure quieted his 
soul, that Hector's death would not long precede his own, yet he swore 
to avenge the early departure of his friend, regardless of the destiny 
that awaited himself. Thetis, seeing her son firm in his resolution, 
endeavored to comfort and animate him for the short remainder of his 
day* ; she promised and brought to him new armor of Vulcan's work- 
manship, and upon his reconciliation with Agamemnon, who had 
restored to him the fair Briseis, he rushed forth in the din of battle, 
to avenge the death of his friend, and to bring sadness and grief over 
Priam and his whole house. 

Hector, thine hour is at hand ! Cover thy head, old Priam, for the 
best and bravest of thy numerous offspring, who has hitherto defended 
the walls of Troy, and Ilion, and thee, shall now fall ! Pluck out thy 
grey hair, Hecuba, mother of many sons and daughters, for the nearest 
and dearest to thy heart of all thy children — he who has been the pro- 
tector of thy house, thy daughters, and thyself, is now to enter on the 
solitary journey to those mansions, whither soon to follow him is thine 
only consolation ! Go into thy chamber, Andromache, best of wives 
and tenderest of mothers, there to weep, and mourn over the loss of 
the best of husbands and the tenderest of fathers, who shall no longer 
defend thee, nor thy little son, Astyanax ! Go, thine own Hector 
must fall ! 

When Achilles appeared on the battle-ground, shaking his mighty 
spear, and thundering like a lion, the Trojans, terror-struck, fled back 
in confusion to the city. Hector alone stood firm to await the son of 
a goddess, and to enter with him on the decisive combat. He stood 
firm, till Achilles drew so near that he could see the divine armor in 
which he was clad. At that moment he fled with sudden consterna- 
tion. Three times was he chased around the walls of Troy by the sors 



ILION OR TROY. 393 



of Thetis : so long bad Apollo strengthened his knees. But as he was 
running round for the fourth time, Jupiter took up the balance, put 
into each scale a lot of death, and that of Hector sank down to Orcus. 
Then Apollo left him to his destiny. 

The heroes fought. Hector fell. And Achilles, fastening his feet 
to his chariot, dragged him in triumph round the city of Troy. The 
old and wretched parents of the fallen hero stood upon the walls, and 
beheld the mournful spectacle. Hecuba filled the air with her lamen- 
tations, and Priam stretched forth his trembling hands, as if entreating 
forbearance. 

In the camp of the Greeks, the funeral of Patroclos was celebrated 
with great pomp, and public games of combat, while Hector's corpse 
lay there unburied. In order to procure for his body the funeral rites, 
and bring Hector's soul to rest in the Eiysian fields, the aged Priam 
himself, conducted by Mercury, came at night to the Grecian camp, 
and entering Achilles' tent, threw himself upon his knees, and conjured 
him, by the memory of his old father, Peleus, to surrender him the 
body of his son Hector, that he might procure for it an honorable 
interment. 

This picture of Priam, as he is embracing the knees of the man who 
had slain his dearest son, the support of his old age, and the defender 
of his city and his throne, and supplicating for this son's body, is one 
of the most tragic, and. at the same time, one of the most touching 
scenes exhibited in the annals of mankind. Another scene, equally 
affecting, deserves to be placed beside it. It is Cassandra, the dangh- 
ter of Priam, who, through the power of her presaging mind, foresees 
all the misery which hangs over Troy, her parents, and herself. But 
obtaining no credit or belief, and therefore no means of preventing 
that misery, she wanders in lonely places, in despair, lamenting her 
cruel fate. 

The distress of Priam reminds Achilles of his own aged father, and 
touched by the thought that he also would soon be lamenting his de- 
parted son, he grants the request of the old man, who, with the corpse 
of Hector, hastens back to Troy, where, with his whole people, he cel- 
ebrates the funeral in the most solemn manner. 

Post-Homeric. — After the death of Hector, the Amazons, conducted 
by their queen Penthesileia, daughter of Mars, went to the aid of the 
Trojans. In the first engagement she was slain by A.chilles, who, struH? 



394 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY, 

with her beauty, returned her body to the Trojans, that they might 
perform her obsequies. Thersites railed at the hero, who turned upon 
him and slew him. This caused a dissension among the army, and 
Achilles sailed to Lesbos, where, after having sacrificed to Latona, Apol- 
lo, and Diana, he was purified of the murder by Ulysses. 

Memnon, the ^Ethiopian, the son of Tithonos and Aurora, now came 
to the aid of the Trojans. He was arrayed in Hephsestean armor, and 
after having slain Autilachos, he is himself slain by Achilles. His 
mother was much grieved at his death, and in her despair went to Ju- 
piter to obtain immortality for him. To console her, Jupiter promised 
that her son should re appear under a new form, and when his body 
was consumed, two white birds were seen to rise from his ashes, which 
were called Memnonides. 

Achilles himself was soon overtaken by his destiny. Pursuing the 
Trojans to the city, and while endeavoring to force his way in, the 
fatal arrow, shot by Paris, and directed by Apollo, wounded him in the 
heel, his only vulnerable part, and the wound proved fatal. An un- 
fortunate contest ensued among the leaders of the Grecian army on ac- 
count of his armor, the present of Yulcan. It was at length awarded 
to Ulysses, at which Ajax, who ranked next in valor to Achilles, was 
so displeased and offended, that he put a period to his life. 

Paris did not long boast of his victory over Achilles. He was 
wounded by Philoctetes, with one of those arrows which Hercules had 
dipped in the blood of the Lernsean Hydra, and left as an inheritance 
to his friend. Paris, when a shepherd, and before he was discovered 
to be a son of Priam, had married (Enone, a nymph of Mount Ida, 
and daughter of the river Cebrenus, in Phrygia. (Enone had received 
the gift of prophecy from Apollo, and warned Paris against the con- 
sequences of his voyage to Greece. She had also told him, that if he 
was ever wounded, to come to her, as she alone could cure him. Paris 
accordingly went to her when wounded by Philoctetes, but (Enone, 
offended at his desertion of her, refused him assistance, and he died on 
his return to Ilion. Repenting of her cruelty, GEnone hastened to 
his relief, but, coming too late, she threw hersell upon his funeral pile 
and perished. 

The downfall of Troy, and the overthrow of Priam's ancient realm, 
now drew nearer and nearer. Yet, after all the blood that had been 
shed, the walls of the city and castle of Ilion were to be conquered, 
not by power, but by artifice. By the advice of the crafty Ulysses, a 



ILION OR TROY. 395 



colossal horse was constructed of wood, within which several of the most 
courageous heroes concealed themselves, while the Greek army went on 
board their ships, feigning to have left the coast of Troas for ever. Si- 
non only remained ; who. on being discovered by the Trojans, made 
them believe, by means of a well-studied tale, that he was a fugitive, per- 
secuted by his own countrymen, the Greeks, and that he was on his way 
to implore the assistance and protection of the magnanimous Trojans. 
He told them, at the same time, as an important secret, that the wooden 
horse, at which the Trojans looked with much astonishment, not knowing 
for what purpose it was left, had been built by the Greeks with the view 
of propitiating Minerva, because they had taken the Palladium from 
the city, the statue of the goddess, which was looked upon as the 
pledge of safety for the realm of Troy. Sinon acted his part so well 
as nearly to disperse all doubt respecting the truth of his account, and 
if some distrust still remained in the breasts of one or two, it was dis- 
pelled by a singular event, which happened quite seasonably to support 
the fictitious tale of the treacherous Greek. 

Laocoon, an old Trojan priest, who had heard that his fellow-citizens 
were about to transport the dangerous gift which the sons of Danaos 
had left behind them, to the temple of Pallas-Athene in the centre of 
the city, hastened before the gates, and conjured them to reflect on 
what they were about to do. At the close of his speech, he struck his 
spear against the side of the horse, from which resounded a feeble 
clash of arms. Laocoon then went with his sons to a neighboring 
temple of Neptune, to offer a sacrifice to the ruler of the waves, to 
thank him for the preservation of his native city, and to implore his 
further assistance. There, while preparing the offerings, two enormous 
serpents, which came from the Isle of Tenedos, over the sea, suddenly 
made their appearance, and ere the wretched father could warn his 
sons or fly with them, the reptiles had already coiled their immense 
folds around the tender bodies of the youths. Laocoon rushing des- 
perately upon the monsters, to save his children, became entangled 
himself within the coils of the snakes. Father and sons beholding 
their mutual agonies, without the power to assist each other, or relieve 
themselves, died a doubly-painful death. 

The fate of Laocoon was considered by the Trojans as a punishment 
inflicted on him by the gods, for violating that present, which was left 
by the departing Greeks to Minerva, and was destined to be the sub- 
stitute for the Palladium of which her temple had been robbed. There 



396 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY 




was now no longer any doubt of the pretended fugitive's sincerity, or 
of the truth of what he had related. The infatuated people hasten- 
ed, with triumphant exultation, to convey this Palladium, the new 
pledge of safety, into the city ; boys and girls were delighted to touch 
the cords by which the horse was drawn. When it was found that 
the gate was not large enough for its admittance, part of the wall was 
broken down, and the fatal horse stood in the midst of Troy. 

Rejoicing at their deliverance from the dangerous enemies who had 
afflicted them with many woes for the past ten years, the hapless in- 
habitants of the city now abandoned themselves freely to wine, dance, 
and joy, until a late hour of the night. At last, while they were buried 
in sleep and intoxication, and midnight had spread its sable mantle 
over the country, the Grecian fleet, which had concealed itself behind 
the isle of Tenedos, again landed on the shores of Troas. Smon ; the 



ODYSSEUS OR ULYSSES. 3^7 

treacherous Sinon, put a ladder to the wooden horse, and opened a 
secret door, and thus a number of Greek heroes were already in the 
streets of Troy. They gave a sign to those on board the ships, by 
lighting a torch. Then, easily overpowering the drunken guard, they 
opened the gates of the city, and in rushed the Greek army. The last 
day of Ilion and Priam's old realm had passed. While sleep press- 
ed upon the eyelids of the greater part of the wretched inhabit- 
ants, those few who at the first alarm endeavored to escape or to resist 
the enemy, were slaughtered in the streets. The enraged soldiery 
immolated to their fury whatever met their eye. They set fire to the 
four corners of the city, and while it was raging, they entered the 
houses in search of prey and murder. Unhappy Priam was slain at 
the very altar of his domestic temple, where he had sought an asy- 
lum. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, in his fury, revered no god, nc 
altar, no asylum ; he plunged his sword in- the old man's heart. Priam 
had seen nearly all his sons become the prey of the sword during the 
unfortunate war ; happy for him that his eyes could not behold the fall 
of the aged Hecuba, his queen, of his daughters, and of Andromache, 
Hector's noble spouse. They were all carried away captives, to weep 
as slaves in a foreign land. 

Thus sunk the glory of Ilion, and thus was Priam's royal race ex- 
tinguished. 

ODYSSEUS OR ULYSSES. 

The G-reeks, on their return to their native land, were obliged to 
atone for their dearly-bought victory with many misfortunes. Even 
the greater part of those who reached their homes in safety, found their 
domestic affairs so changed and disordered during a ten years' absence, 
that the remainder of their days, instead of being passed in peace and 
tranquillity, were embittered by many calamities. 

The hardest fate befel " the sufferer Odysseus," who in addition to 
the ten years which he had lain before the walls of Ilion, was now 
doomed to wander about on the sea another ten years before he was 
permitted to behold again the shores of Ithaca. On doubling the 
cape of Malea, in Laconia, Odysseus encountered a violent north-east 
wind, which for nine days drove him along the sea, till he reached 
the country of Lotus-eaters. His men, going on shore, were kindly 
entertained by the Lotus-eaters, who gave them some of their own food 
the Lotus-plant. The effect of this plant was such, that they lost al] 



398 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

thought of home, and Odysseus was obliged to drag them away and 
fasten them to the ship. 

Polyphemos, one of the Cyclopes, is represented as having but one 
eye in the middle of his forehead, of an enormous size, and leading a 
pastoral life. On leaving the country of the Lotus-eaters, and sailing 
further westward, Ulysses was thrown upon that part of the coast of 
Sicily which was inhabited by these monsters, and having with twelve 
of his companions entered the cave of Polyphemos during his ab- 
sence, they were found by him on his return, and kept immured for 
the purpose of being devoured. Four of the Grecian chief's com- 
panions fell a prey to the voracity of the monster ; but Ulysses es- 
caped by the following expedient : Having intoxicated the Cyclope, 
he availed himself of his state of insensibility to deprive him of sight, 
by means of a large stake which was discovered in the cave. After 
having sharpened it and heated it in the fire, Ulysses plunged it into 
his eye. 

Polyphemos roared so loud with the pain, that be roused the other 
Cyclopes from their mountain retreats. On inquiring the cause of his 
outcries, they were told by Polyphemos that No-man (the name which 
Ulysses had applied to himself) had inflicted the injury : whereupon 
they retired to their dens, recommending him to supplicate his father, 
Poseidon, for aid ; since his malady came not, as he himself said, from 
human hands, and must therefore be a visitation from Zeus. 

The monster then having removed the immense stone which blocked 
up the mouth of the cave, placed himself at its entrance to prevent the 
escape of his enemies. Ulysses, however, eluded his vigilance by fas- 
tening the sheep together three and three, with osier bands, and then 
tying one of his companions beneath the middle one of every three. 
In this manner the whole party passed out safely ; the hero himself 
bringing up the rear, clinging to a thick-fleeced and favorite ram. 

After escaping from the Cyclopes, and sailing still farther west, they 
reached the treacherous harbor of the Lestrigonians, a gigantic nation 
that fed on human flesh. After devouring one of the crew, they pur- 
sued the rest, and with huge rocks destroyed them, as well as all the 
vesssels within the harbor ; that of Odysseus, which had not entered, 
alone escaping. Leaving this place, they next landed at the isle of 
iEsea, the abode of Circe. 

By Homer, Circe is called human speaking ; he also calls her the 
daughter of Helios by the Oceanis Persa, and own sister of the wise 



ODYSSEUS OR ULYSSES. 39fl 



Metes. She seems not to have possessed the power of moving through 
the air or upon the water, but to have dwelt continuously in one place. 
She was famous for her power of enchantment. 

The island of Circe was small, and her abode in the centre of it, 
deeply embosomed in wood. She dwelt alone, attended by four nymphs ; 
and all persons who approached her dwelling were, by her magic art, 
turned into swine. Odysseus sent his companions to explore her re- 
sidence; she set before them the drugged draught, and when they had 
tasted it, touched them with her wand, and they suffered the usual 
metamorphosis. Odysseus, hearing of their misfortune, resolved to 
release them or share their fate. On his way he was met by Hermes, 
who gave him a plant named Moly, potent against her magic, and di- 
rected him how to proceed. Circe gave him the medicated bowl, of 
which he drank freely, and thinking it had produced its usual effect, 
she struck him with her wand, and bade him join his comrades in the 
sty. But Odysseus, drawing his sword, threatened to kill her. The 
terrified goddess then bound herself by an oath to do him no injury. 
At his request, she restored his companions to their pristine form. 
and they all abode in her dwelling for an entire year. 

At the end of that period they were anxious to depart ; but the god- 
dess bade the hero first cross the ocean, and enter the abode of Aides 
where he was to consult the blind prophet, Teiresias. Accordingly, 
they left iEaea, and impelled by a favorable wind, soon reached the 
opposite coast, the land of perpetual gloom. Odysseus obeyed the 
direction of the goddess, and dug a small pit, into which he poured 
mulse, wine, water, flour, and the blood of, victims. The dead came 
forth from the house of Aides, and Odysseus there saw the heroines of 
former days, and conversed with the shades of Agamemnon and Achil- 
leus. Terror at length came over him ; he hastened back to his ship, 
and reached iEsea while it was yet night, 

Leaving iEsea on their homeward voyage, Odysseus and his com- 
panions came first to the island of the Sirens. These were two mai- 
dens who sat in a mead close to the sea, and with their melodious voices 
so charmed those who were sailing by, that they forgot home and every 
thing relating to it, and abode there till their bones lay whitening upon 
the strand. Forewarned by Circe of the evils to which he would sub 
ject himself by listening to them, he made his companions stop their 
ears with wax, and had himself fastened to the mast of the ship, en- 
joining his followers not to unbind him, even if he should desire it. 



400 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



Tims Lie passed in safety the abode of the Sirens, hearing without dan 
ger the enchanting harmony of their voices. 

Hesiod described the mead of the Sirens as blooming with flowers 
and their voices, he said, stilled the wind. Their names were said tc 
be Aglaiopheme (Clear-voice), Thelxeipeia (Magic-speech). It was 
feigned that they threw themselves into the sea with vexation at the 
escape of Odysseus. 

Having passed by the dangerous Sirens, his course lay between 
Scylla and Charybdis : a pass so difficult, that its danger has given 
rise to the saying, •' If one avoid Charybdis, he is sure to be wrecked 
on Scylla." Circe informed him of the danger, telling him that he 
would come to two lofty cliffs placed opposite each other, between 
which he must pass. One of these cliffs she represents as towering to 
such a height that its summit is for ever enveloped in clouds, and no 
man, even if he had twenty hands and as many feet, could ascend it. 
In the middle of this cliff, she said, is a cave facing the west ; but so 
high, that a man in a ship passing under it could not shoot up to it 
with a bow. This den was the abode of Scylla, whose voice sounds 
like that of a young whelp : she has twelve feet, and six long necks, 
with a terrific head, and three rows of close set teeth in each. Ever- 
more she stretches out these necks and catches the animals of the sea, 
and out of every ship that passes each mouth takes a man. 

The opposite rock, the goddess informs him 5 is much lower, for a 
man could shoot over it. A wild fig tree grows upon it, stretching its 
branches down to the water; but '-beneath, divine Charybdis. three 
times each day, absorbs and regorges the water. It is much more dan- 
gerous, she adds, to pass Charybdis than Scylla " 

As Odysseus sailed by, Scylla took six of his crew, and when, after 
having lost his companions, and floating on a part of the wreck, he was 
carried between the monsters, the mast by which he supported himself 
was sucked in by Charybdis. He held fast to the branches of the fig 
tree till it was thrown out again, and* then resumed his voyage 

Both Teiresias and Circe had charged Odysseus to shun the isle 
Thrinakia, on which the flocks and herds of the Sun-god fed, under the 
care of Phaethusa and Lampetia, to which he would come immediately 
after passing Scylla and Charybdis. Odysseus was desirous of obeying 
the injunctions he had received : but as it was evening when they 
reached tie island, his companions forced him to consent to their land- 
ing and passing the night there. They proposed to depart in th 



ODYSSEUS OR ULYSSES. 401 

morning, and took an oath not to molest the cattle of the sun. During 
the night a violent storm came on ; and for an entire month a south- 
east wind (Euros and Notos) confined them to the island. They ex- 
hausted their provisions, and then lived on such birds as they could 
catch. At length, while Odysseus was sleeping, his companions killed 
several of the sacred oxen. On awaking, he was filled with horror 
and despair at what they had done. Apollo complained of the crime 
at the throne of the Thunderer, and as soon as the ship had reached 
the open sea, Zeus dashed her to pieces with one of his thunderbolts. 
Of the whole crew, Odysseus was the only survivor; and he saved 
himself by swimming to Ogygia, the island of Calypso, by whom he 
was most kindly received and entertained. She detained him there 
for eight years, designing to make him immortal, and to keep him with 
her for ever ; but Hermes, arriving with a command from Zeus, she 
was obliged to consent to his departure. She then gave the hero tools 
to build a raft or light vessel, supplied him with provisions, and reluc- 
tantly took a final leave of him. 

Calypso, that is the Concealer (the poet after his usual manner giving 
her a significant name), is called by Homer the daughter of Atlas. 
Hesiod makes her an Oceanis, and Apollodorus a Nereis. Like Circe 
she was a human-speaking goddess, and dwelt in a solitary state with 
her attendant nymphs ; but her abode was a cavern, while the daugh- 
ter of Helios possessed a mansion of cut stone. Her isle presented 
such a scene of sylvan beauty as charmed even Hermes, one of the 
dwellers of Olympos. 

Odysseus once more surrendered his life to the waves of the sea on 
a raft which he had built with his own hands, and was now approaching 
the shores of Ithaca, when Poseidon cast his eye upon the bold navi- 
gator. The god being incensed against him for having deprived his 
son Polyphemos of his only eye, raised a sudden storm, by which Odys- 
seus was cast back upon the open sea and upset. Exposed to the wild, 
tempest as a prey to the raging billows, still he despaired not. Cling- 
ing to a rock, he suffered the storm to pass over, and then swam to the 
neighboring island of the Phseacians. where he was received with kind- 
ness and hospitality. 

The Phseacians are said to have dwelt originally in Hypereia, near 
the Cyclopes ; but being oppressed by that savage race, they migrated 
to the isle of Scheria, having been led thither by their king, Nausithoos, 

20 



402 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

the son of Poseidon and Periboea the youngest daughter of Eurymidon, 
king of the giants. 

The Pheeacians, like the Cyclopes and giants, were a people akin to 
the gods, who appeared manifestly, and feasted among them when they 
offered sacrifices, and did not conceal themselves from solitary wayfar- 
ers whom they might chance to meet. They are represented in the 
Odyssey as having abundance of wealth, and enjoying it peacefully, for 
as they " dwelt remote from gain-seeking man/' no enemy ever ap- 
proached their shores, and they had no occasion for bows and quivers. 
Their chief employment was navigation ; their ships, which went with 
the velocity of birds, or of thought, were, like the Argo. endued with 
intelligence They knew every port, and needed no pilot when impel- 
led by the rowers. 

The princess Nausicaa, when reproving the false alarm of her attend- 
ants at the sight of Odysseus, says to them, " Do you think he is an 
enemy ? There is not a living mortal, nor will there be, who will come 
bearing war to the land of the Phseacians ; for they are very dear to 
the immortals. We dwell apart in the wave-full sea, the last ; nor does 
any other mortal mingle with us ; but this is some unfortunate wan- 
derer who has come hither." (Od. vi. 200.) 

Alcinoos, the king of the Phseacians, furnished Odysseus with one 
ot their magic vessels to convey him and the gifts he had received to 
his native isle. He reached there in safety, and the sailors then de- 
parted, leaving him asleep on the shore. On awaking, he was inform- 
ed by Athena that he had reached his home ; and going to the house 
of his swine-herd, Eumceos, he there met his son Telemachos, to whom 
he revealed himself. He found his old father Laertes still alive, and 
his faithful wife, Penelope. 

During the absence of Odysseus, Penelope had held him in faithful 
remembrance, and though pressed by her numerous suitors to consider 
him as dead, and make a second choice, yet she retained such faithful 
love for her husband, with a full prophetic assurance that she should 
once more see him, that all their efforts to influence her were vain. 

In order to put them off more effectually, she commenced making a 
piece of cloth, promising that when it was finished she would choose 
one from among their number. This stratagem was successful ; for 
she undid at night what she had wrought in the day, so that when 
Odysseus arrived, she was no nearer its completion than at first. 

The first care of Odysseus on returning to his native land, was to 



ROMULUS. 403 



punish those suitors who had wooed his chaste spouse during his ab 
sence, and consumed his property in their daily banquets. With the 
assistance of his son Telemachos, and his faithful swine-herd Eumoeos, 
he killed them in the porch of his palace in the midst of their revelry, 
and with the assistance of his friends who gathered around him, he ob 
tained possession of his throne. 

Tyresias, the soothsayer, had informed him that he should be killed 
by one of his sons. To avert this misfortune, he determined to forsake 
the world, and retire into some solitary place, and there to end his days 
in peace. But about that time Telegonos, one of his sons by Circe, 
came to the city, and as he was endeavoring to enter the palace, the 
officers refused admission. A tumult arose, Odysseus stepped out, 
and Telegonos, not knowing him, ran him through with his lance, thus 
fulfilling the prophecy of the soothsayer. 

ROMULUS. 

According to the old poetic legend, Romulus and Remus were the 
sons of Mars land Ilia, a daughter of Numitor. Amulius, who had 
usurped the throne of Alba in defiance of the right of his elder brother, 
Numitor, ordered the infants to be thrown into the Tiber. The basket 
in which they were placed drifted down the current, till it became en- 
tangled in the roots of a wild vine at the foot of the Palatine Hill. 
There they were suckled by a she-wolf, which had come to the river to 
drink, and were afterwards found in her den by Faustulus, one of the 
king's herdsmen, who took them home to his wife Larentia, by whom 
they were carefully nursed and named Romulus and Remus. 

As the two youths grew up, they displayed superior courage and 
abilities, and became the leaders of the youthful herdsmen in their 
contests with robbers or rivals. 

Having quarrelled with the herdsmen of Numitor, they were seized 
and taken before him, when the secret of their origin was discovered. 
They speedily expelled Amulius, and restored their grandfather to his 
throne. But accustomed to the enjoyment of liberty, they preferred 
not to remain as subjects at Alba, and requested permission of Numitor 
to build a city on the banks of the Tiber, where their lives were so 
miraculously preserved. This permission was no sooner granted, than 
a contest arose between the two brothers in regard to the site, the 
name, and the sovereignty of the new city which they were about to 
foubi. They at length agreed to refer it to the gods by augury. Ro- 



404 



GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



mulus took his station on the Palatine Hill and Remus on the Aven- 
tine. At sunrise Remus saw six vultures, and immediately after Ro- 
mulus saw twelve. The superiority was adjudged to Romulus, against 
which Remus remonstrated, on the ground that he had received the 
first omen. Romulus proceeded to mark the boundaries for the wall 
of the city. This took place on the twenty-first of April ; the day of 
the festival of Pales, the goddess of shepherds. 

While the wall was beginning to rise above the surface, Remus, whose 
mind was still rankling with disappointment, leaped over it, saying 
scornfully, " Shall such a wall as this keep your city ?" He was imme- 
diately killed, some say by Romulus. According to others, Celer, who 
had charge of erecting that part of the wall, struck him with the im- 
plement which he held in his hand, exclaiming, " So perish whosoever 
shall hereafter overleap these ramparts." 

By this event, Romulus was left the sole sovereign of the city. Yet 
he felt a deep remorse at his brother's fate, buried him honorably, and 
when he sat to administer justice placed a vacant seat by his side with 
a sceptre and a crown, as if acknowledging the right of his brother to 
the possession of equal honor. 

At the close of the reign of Romulus, as he was reviewing his army 
near the Lake Capra, the sky was suddenly darkened, and dreadful 
thunderings and tempestuous winds scattered the people in dismay. 
When the tempest was over, they made anxious inquiries for the king ; 
but the patricians would not allow them to search for Romulus, saying 
that he had been caught up to heaven, and if they worshipped him he 
would be a propitious deity to the Romans. Upon this the multitude 
were satisfied and dispersed. They then offered worship to Romulus 
in the hope of obtaining his favor and protection. 

NUMA POMPILIUS. 

This hero was born on the very day that Romulus laid the founda- 
tion of Rome. He was married to Tatia, a daughter of Tatius, who 
was the associate of Romulus in the kingdom. Numa remained in the 
country of the Sabines, devoting himself to the service of his father, 
who was now grown old. Tatia shared his retirement, preferring the 
calm enjoyments of private life with her husband, to the honor and 
distinction in which she might have lived with her father at Rome. 

Thirteen years after their marriage, Tatia died. Numa then left 
the city, and passed his time in wandering about the sacred groves 



NUMA POMPILIUS. 405 

This habit gave rise to the popular opinion that the Nymph Egeria 
dictated the laws that he established, both civil and religious. 

When upon the death of Romulus, he was chosen by the senators of 
Rome to be their ruler, it was with great difficulty that he was per- 
suaded to accept the office. But on deciding to go, he offered sacrifices 
to the gods, and then set out for Rome. He was met by the people 
with every demonstration of honor and respect. Robes and other dis- 
tinctions of royalty were offered him. when he commanded them to 
forbear, as his authority yet wanted the sanction of heaven. Taking 
with him the priest and augurs, he went up to the Capitol, which the 
Romans at that time called the Tarpeian rock. There the chief of the 
augurs covered the head of Nuina, and turned his face towards the 
south ; then, standing behind him, and laying his right hand upon his 
head, he offered up his devotions and looked around in hopes of seeing 
birds or some other signal of the gods. An incredible silence reigned 
among the people, anxiously lost in suspense for the event, till the 
auspicious birds appeared, and passed on the right hand. Numa, then 
taking the royal robe, went down from the mount to the people, who 
received him with acclamations as the most pious of men, and beloved 
of the gods. • 

The duties of his office were discharged to the satisfaction of his 
subjects. His great object was to quell the spirit of war and conquest 
which he found in the people, and to inculcate a love of peace, with a 
reverence for the deity, whose worship by images he forbade. He es- 
tablished a priesthood, the effect of which was to prevent any graven 
images, or statues, from appearing in their sanctuaries for upwards of 
a hundred and thirty years. 

This wise monarch, aware of the power of superstition, encouraged 
the report that he was regularly visited by Egeria. In her name he 
introduced all his laws and regulations, and solemnly declared in the 
presence of the people, that they were sanctified by the approval of 
that being ;■ an approval which gave them additional favor in the eyes 
of this superstitious people. 



ft Egeria ! sweet creation of some heart, 
Which found no resting-place so fair 
As thine ideal breast ; whate'er thou art, 
Or wert — a young Aurora of the air, 



406 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

The nympholepsy of some fond despair; 

Or, it might be, a beauty of the earth, 

Who found a more than common votary there 

Too much adoring, whatsoe'er thy birth, 

Thou wert a beautiful thought, and softly bodied forth 

Here didst thou dwell, in this enchanted cover, 

Egeria ! thy all-heavenly bosom beating 

For the far footsteps of thy mortal lover ; 

The purple midnight veiled that mystic meeting 

With her most starry canopy, and seating 

Thyself by thine adorer, what befel ? 

This cave was surely shaped out for the greeting 

Of an enamored goddess, and the cell 

Haunted by holy love — the earliest oracle ! 

And didst thou not, thy breast to his replying, 

Blend a celestial with a human heart ; 

And love, which dies as it was born, in sighing, 

Share with the immortal transports ? Could thine art 

Make them indeed immortal, and impart 

The purity of heaven to earthly joys, 

Expel the venom and not blunt the dart— 

The dull satiety which all destroys — 

And root from out the soul the deadly weed which cloys ?" 

Byron. 

The Greeks appropriated a religious worship to those who were re- 
garded as the founders of colonies and cities. From thus honoring 
the benefactors of nations, originated the custom of rendering the same 
homage to kings and princes. 

During many centuries, the Romans deified no one but Romulua. 
Caesar was the first who received this distinction. After his death a 
comet appeared as they were celebrating the funeral games in his hon- 
or, and was regarded by the people as a sign that his soul was admit- 
ted to the society of the gods. For which reason a star was added to 
his statue erected soon after in the Forum. 

Divine honors were afterwards accorded to Augustus. The provin- 
ces bordering the empire demanded permission to erect a temple to 
him, which he granted on condition that they associated him with the 
deities of Rome ; and above all, that they raised to them a common 
altar. After his death, he received the honors of consecration, and a 
temple was built to him in Rome. From this time the ceremony of 
deification was termed consecration, and was first decreed by the sen- 
ate. But the people, the army, and often-times the emperor himself 



CONSECRATION. 407 



forced the decision. The same honor was also accorded to the 
empresses. 

The ceremony of consecration was very solemn. The body was 
placed upon a bed of ivory, and borne to the funeral pile upon the 
shoulders of young men of the highest rank. This was formed of 
rows of columns, one placed above the other, filled in with combustible 
matter, and decorated with sculptures and paintings. The body, en- 
veloped in precious spices and aromatics, was placed upon the second 
tier. The successor of the emperor then took a torch and set fire to 
the pile, from the summit of which arose an eagle, that they believed 
carried the soul to heaven. After this apotheosis, temples and altars 
were erected to the departed emperor, and he was worshipped as a god. 

The symbols of consecration are usually found upon imperial medals, 
the head of the emperor being surrounded with rays, and on the re- 
verse, the funeral pile with the eagle ; or on that of an empress, a pea- 
cock. 

In the height of her glory, Rome was honored as a deity in Rome 
itself. Augustus allowed this worship only in the provinces. Hadrian 
was the first fbo erected a temple to her in the city. She is repre- 
sented as robust and warlike, according to the Greek jtymology of her 
name, which signifies force. Her statues, which are rare, resemble 
those of Pallas. On medals she is sometimes represented as seated 
upon the seven hills, and sometimes in her temple, holding an eagle, a 
trophy, or a palladium ; a globe, or a victory. The victory, or a crown ; 
always accompanies her. 



PART FIFTH. 



MYTHIC FICTIONS. 



MYTHIC FICTIONS 



TRITON. 




According to Hesiod, Triton was 
a son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, 
who, " keeping to the bottom of the 
sea, dwelt with his mother and royal 
father in a golden house." Later po- 
ets made him his father's trumpeter. 
He is sometimes represented as blow- 
ing the shell and holding a rudder 
over his shoulder. He was also mul- 
tiplied, and we read of Tritons in the plural number. 

Like the Nereides, the Tritons were degraded to the fish form. Pau- 
sanias tells us, that the women of Tanagra, in Boeotia, going into the 
sea to purify themselves for the orgies of Bacchos, were assailed by 
Triton ; but on praying to their god, he vanquished their persecutor. 
Others, he adds, said that Triton used to carry off the cattle which 
were driven down to the sea, as well as seize all small vessels, till the 
Tanagrians, placing bowls of wine on the shore, he drank of them, and 
becoming intoxicated, threw himself down to sleep. A Tanagrian 
then cut off his head with an axe. These legends he relates, to account 
for the headless statue of Triton at Tanagra. He then subjoins : 

" I have seen another Triton among the curiosities of the Romans ; 
but it is not so large as that of the Tanagrians. The form of the 
Tritons is this — the hair of their heads resembles the parsley that grows 
in the marshes, both in color and the perfect likeness of one hair to 
another, so that no difference can be perceived among them ; the rest 
of their body is rough with small scales, and is of about the same hard- 
ness as the skin of a fish ; they have fish gills under their ears ; their 



4i2 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

nostrils are those of a man, but their teeth are broader, and like those 
of a wild beast ; their eyes seem to me azure ; and their hands, fingers, 
and nails are of the form of the shell-fish ; instead of feet, they have 
fins, like those of the porpoise." 

OTOS AND EPHIALTES. 

The Aloeids, Otos and Ephialtes, were also sons of Poseidon. In 
their ninth year, they were nine cubits in width, and nine fathoms 
in height. At this early age they undertook to make war upon Zeus ; 
and, in order to reach the heavens, they strove to place Mount Ossa 
upon Olympos, and Pelion upon Ossa ; but (to use the graphic lan- 
guage of Homer) " they were destroyed by Apollo before the down had 
bloomed beneath their temples, and had thickly covered their chins with 
a well-flowering beard." According to the animated narrative of the 
same bard, they would have accomplished their object had they made 
the attempt, not in childhood, but after having " reached the measure 
of youth." 

Such is the Homeric legend of the Aloeids, as given in the Odyssey. 
In the Iliad, they are said to have bound Mars, and kept him eighteen 
months captive, until Mercury stole him away. Later writers of 
course add many other particulars. Apollodorus makes Ephialtes to 
have aspired to a union with Juno, and Otos with Diana ; and further 
states, that Diana effected their destruction in the island of Naxos. 
She changed herself, it seems into a hind, and bounded between the 
two brothers, who, in their eagerness each to slay the animal, pierced 
one another with their weapons. Diodorus Siculus gives an historical 
air to the narrative, making the brothers to have held sway in Naxos. 
and to have fallen in a quarrel by each other's hands ; and the Scho- 
liast Virgil assigns the Aloeids a place of punishment in Tartaros : 
and some of the ancient fabulists make them to have been hurled 
thither by Zeus, and others by Apollo. So in the Odyssey they are 
spoken of as inhabiting the lower world, though no reason is assigned 
by the poet for their being there, except that we may infer, from the 
legend itself, that they were cut off in early life, lest, if they had been 
allowed to attain their full growth, they might have obtained the em- 
pire of the skies. 

Pausanias makes the Aloeids to have founded Ascar in Boeotia, and 
to have been the first who sacrificed to the Muses on Mount Helicon. 
Miiller regards the Aloeids as the mystic leaders of the old Thraciac 



DjEdalos. 413 



colonies, heroes by land and sea. In Pieria they appear at Aloium, 
near Tempe, and at Mount Helicon, and in both quarters have refer- 
ence to the digging of canals and the draining of mountain dales. 
Oreuzer, on the other hand, sees a figurative allusion to a contest, as 
it were, between the water and the land. Aloeus is the man of the 
threshing-floor, whose efforts are all useless, from the infidelity of his 
spouse, the Earth — the very wise one. She unites with Neptune 
against him, and the Sea thereupon begets the energies of the tempests 
(Otos and Ephialtes), which darken the day; and brooding heavily 
over the earth, cause the waves of the Ocean to leap and dash upon 
the cultivated region along the shore. 

At last the god of day, Apollo, comes forth, and the storm ceases ; 
first along the mountain tops, and finally upon the shore. The other 
version of the fable, that the Aloeids were destroyed by Diana, would 
make it appear that the storm was hushed by the influences of the moon. 

TALOS. 

Minos had a brazen man named Talos, given to him by Hephasstos, 
or to Europa by Zeus, who compassed the island of Crete thrice in 
each day, in order to prevent the landing of strangers. His mode of 
destroying them was to make himself red-hot in the fire and then em- 
brace them. When the Argo reached Crete, Medeia persuaded Talos 
that she could make him immortal ; and he therefore allowed her to 
pull out the pin in his heel, and let the ichor run out from his only 
vein, and he thus died. 

MIDALOS. 

At Athens, Minerva's sacred city, plastic art first developed itself, 
claiming an eminent rank among the occupations of men. 

Daedalos, a descendant of the royal race of the Erechthides, is said 
by fiction to have infused life and motion into the statues that he made. 
He was the first to separate the legs of his statues, which formerly, as 
is yet to be seen in the Egyptian monuments, were united together. 
He in like manner dislodged the arms from the body, giving his figures 
a moving attitude. We cannot wonder that such a representation, 
entirely new as it was, should fill every mind with astonishment, and 
give rise to the saying, that Daedalos' statues were endowed with mo 
tion. 



414 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

The first step of Dsedalos involved something lofty and divine, which 
excited the admiration of posterity, and immortalized the name of the 
artist, although its glory was tarnished by a black and cruel deed. 

Under his guidance a youth, named Talos, and son of the artist's 
sister, while engaged in the practice of the art, was one day cutting a 
piece of wood with the jaw-bone of a snake, when he conceived the idea 
of imitating the sharp teeth in iron, and thus became the inventor of 
the saw ; one of the most useful, as well as one of the most necessary 
instruments to man. Another invention of Talos was the potter's 
wheel. Dsedalos, jealous of the progress of his pupil, cherished a deadly 
hatred against him ; thus showing in the very commencement of art, 
the envy of artists almost inseparable from art itself. Leading the 
promising youth to a steep height, Dsedalos, ere" the innocent victim of 
his jealousy and hatred was aware of his intention, hurled him down 
into the abyss, because he wished to take a higher flight than even his 
master had attained. 

When this murder became known in Athens, Dsedalos, although as 
an artist he graced Athena's mansion, was condemned to die by the 
court of the Areiopagos, and would have been executed, but for his 
flight to Crete, where his divine art contrived the Labyrinth. This 
wondrous abode of the Minotaur, which his hands had reared, became 
the prison of himself and son. But art, even while imprisoned, shakes 
off her shackles, and takes her flight to the sky. Dsedalos attempted 
what appeared to all but himself impossible to be performed. There 
was but one outlet through which he could hope to escape, and this 
was in the high arched ceiling. He procured by artifice the necessary 
implements for making wings, and after having exercised his son, Ica- 
ros, in the use of them, and given him warning not to raise himself too 
high, lest the wax with which the feathers were united should be melted 
by the sun-beams ; nor, on the other hand, to pursue too low a course, 
lest they should be wet with the waters of the sea, both father and son 
took their flight through the opening of the prison. 

Icaros, overjoyed at sailing through the air like a bird, and forgetful 
of the counsels of his father, soared in an elevated course towards the 
sky, and fell from an immense height, the wax of his wings having 
been melted by the sun-beams. The sea in which he found his death 
was called after him the Iearian. Dsedalos, who without pity had 
hurled Talos into the abyss, is now obliged, with bitterness of soul, to 
witness the fall of his own son, to whom he can afford no assistance. 



CENTAURS. 



415 



Daedalos descended on the island of Sicily, where he was hospitably 
received by Cocalos, who defended him from the persecutions of Minos. 
Grateful for his hospitality and protection, the artist undertook several 
great works, both of architecture and sculpture, in the territory, and 
for the benefit of king Cocalos. He dug canals and ponds ; built a 
castle upon a high rock ; levelled the top of mount Eryx. and there 
consecrated a golden cow to the Erycinian Yenus. 

Long after his time, traces of his genius and art were still found in 
Sicily ; and his name became proverbial to denote whatever is ingenious 
or skilful. He was the personification of the earliest developments of 
the arts of sculpture and architecture, especially among the Athenians 
and Cretans. 

Upon ancient works of art, the representation of Daedalos is often 
found, as he is sitting and musing over the artificial wing, on which ha 
is still laboring with skilful hand. 



CENTAURS. 

The Centaurs were a tribe of 
Thessaly, fabled to have been 
half men and half horse, and are 
always mentioned in connection 
with the Lapiths. The former 
are twice spoken of in the Iliad, 
under the name of Wild-men, and 
once in the Odyssey. They ap- 
pear to have been a rude, moun- 
tain tribe, dwelling on and about 
Mount Pelion. 

Cheiron, who is called by Ho- 
mer "the most upright of the 
Centaurs," was intrusted with the care of rearing Iason, Medeios, He- 
racles, Asclepios, and Achilleus. Besides his knowledge of the musical 
art, which he imparted to his heroic pupils, he was also skilled in sur- 
gery, which he taught to Asclepios and Achilleus. 
- In the contest between Heracles and the Centaurs, Cheiron was 
accidentally wounded by one of the hero's arrows. Grieved at this 
unhappy event, Heracles ran to him, drew out the arrow, and applied 
a remedy which had been given him by Cheiron himself ; but in vain. 
The venom of the Hydra was not to be overcome. 




416 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

Cheiron entered a cave, longing to die, but was unable, on account 
of his immortality. He prayed to Zeus for relief, when he was raised 
to the sky, where he appears as the constellation Sagittarius. 

ATALANTA. 

lasos, or Iasion, a descendant of Areas, was married to Clymene, a 
daughter of Minyas. He was anxious for a male offspring, and there- 
fore, disappointed at her birth, he exposed the babe in the mountains, 
where she was suckled by a bear, and at last found by some hunters, 
who named her Atalanta, and reared her. She followed the chase, and 
was alike distinguished for beauty and courage. The Centaurs, Rhoe- 
cos and Hylseos, approaching her with evil intentions, perished by her 
arrows. She distinguished herself in the Calydonian hunt, and at the 
funeral games of Pelias, she won the prize in wrestling. 

Atalanta was afterwards recognized by her parents. Her father 
wished her to marry, to which she consented, on condition that her 
suitors should run a race with her, promising, if she should be van- 
quished, to become the wife of the victor ; but the vanquished suitor 
should be shot by one of her own darts. As she was almost invincible 
in running, many of her suitors perished in the contest. 

Hippomenes, venturing to enter upon this dangerous race, implored 
the assistance of Aphrodite, who presented him with three golden 
apples, which, one after another, he let slip from his hands during the 
course. Atalanta, whose eyes were dazzled by the glitter and beauty 
of this golden fruit, repeatedly stopped to take it up from the ground, 
and thus Hippomenes gained time to reach the goal before her. 

Atalanta became the wife of Hippomenes ; but unmindful of the 
benefit which he owed to Aphrodite, both were obliged to atone for his 
offence against the goddess. Upon her impulse, they profaned a sanc- 
tuary of Cybele, who, with formidable power, transformed them into 
two lions, that under one yoke drew her chariot. 

ARACHNE. 
A Masonian maid, named Arachne, proud of her skill in weaving 
and embroidery, in which arts the goddess of wisdom had instructed 
her. ventured to deny her obligation, and challenged her patroness to 
a trial of skill. Athena, assuming the form of an old woman, warned 
her to desist from her boasting, but. finding her admonitions vain, she 
resumed her proper form, and accepted the challenge. The skill of 



TA5TAL0S, 41? 



Arachne was such, and the subject she chose (the love transformations 
of the gods) so offensive to Athena, that she struck her several times 
on the forehead with the shuttle. The high-spirited maid, unable to 
endure this affront, hung herself; and the goddess, relenting, changed 
her into a spider. 

" Arachne thrice upon the forehead smote ; 
Whose great heart brooks it not ; about her throat 
A rope she ties ; remorseful Pallas stay'd 
Her falling weight ; ' Live, wretch, yet hang !' — she said." 

Ovid. 

TANTALOS. 

Tantalos is fabled to have been the son of Zeus and the Nymph 
Pluto ( Wealth). He was the father of Pelops and of Niobe, the wife 
of Amphion. His residence was placed at the foot of Mount Sipylos ; 
in Lydia, and fiction represents him as the favorite of the gods, who 
admitted him to their table, where he feasted on nectar and ambrosia, 
which made him immortal. 

He once so far forgot himself as to offend Jupiter with some intem- 
perate language, and was immediately plunged from the height of hap- 
piness to the immeasurable depths of misery. His punishment is thus 
described by Homer : " And I saw," says Odysseus, " Tantalos suffering 
grievous torments, standing in a lake, and the water dashed against 
his chin, but he resembled one thirsty, and could not take any to drink, 
for as often as the old man stooped eager to drink, so often the water 
disappeared, being absorbed ; and about his feet the black earth ap- 
peared, for a divinity withheld him ; and above his head lofty trees, 
pear trees, and peach trees, and apples, with their beautiful fruit, and 
sweet figs, and flourishing olive trees hung their fruit, which, when the 
old man straightened himself to reach with his hands, the wind dissipa- 
ted them into dark clouds." 

This punishment was, as it were, a continuance of the life he had led 
on earth ; an emblem of that unsatisfied desire to penetrate the secrets 
9f the gods ; a desire which even induced him to kill his son Pelops, 
and to serve up his flesh at a banquet, in order to ascertain their di- 
vinity. If any thing can indicate the danger of inordinate curiosity, it 
is this shocking tale. It is the depravation that humanity commits on 
itself, in order to investigate the primeval cause of its existence. 

The other crimes of Tantalos were encroachments upon the privileges 

27 



418 GRECIAN AND ROMAN M JTTHOLOGY. 

of the celestials. He stole ambrosia from their table, that mortal lips 
might taste it ; and assisted by Pandaros, he carried off the dog that 
guarded the sanctuary of Zeus in Crete. 

NIOBE. 

Niobe, the daughter of Tantalos, and wife of Amphion, king of Thebes, 
prided herself on being the mother of seven hardy sons and as many 
beautiful daughters ; and to such an excess was she led by her maternal 
pride, that she scoffed at Latona, who was the parent of only one son 
and one daughter. 

Incensed at the affront offered to their mother, Latona's twins united 
to avenge her ; and while the arrows of Apollo pierced the heart of 
Niobe's sons, their sisters were shot by Diana. The wretched parents 
hastened to their children's assistance, when an arrow from the bow of 
Apollo pierced the heart of Amphion. Niobe, thus deprived of her 
children, who had been her greatest treasure as well as the pride of 
her heart, and at the same time of her husband, went forth into the 
wilderness, there in lonely solitude to shed maternal tears. The gods 
beheld her sufferings, pitied her, and put an end to her grief. The 
once beautiful queen, suddenly found herself deprived of motion, and 
gradually stiffening into stone. She was changed into a rock, which 
on Mount Sipylos in Lydia, as if still conscious of sorrow, continues to 
shed tears, and is a perpetual monument of her grief. 

IXION. 

Ixion, who reigned in Thessaly, was subjected to a fate similar to 
that of Tantalos. 

He obtained the hand of Dia, the daughter of Deioneus, at the same 
time promising his father-in-law large nuptial gifts, according to the 
custom of the heroic ages. He broke his engagement, when Deioneus 
seized his horses and detained them as a pledge. Ixion then sent to 
say that the gifts were ready if Deioneus would come and take them. 
He accordingly went ; but his treacherous son-in-law had prepared in 
his house a pit filled with fire and covered over, into which the unsus- 
pecting prince fell and perished. After this deed, the mind of Ixion 
became deranged ; and his atrocity was such that neither gods nor men 
would absolve him At length, Zeus himself took pitv, purified him. 
and admitted him to the table of the gods, where the charms of the 
queen of heaven made him forget his mortality 



sisyphos. 419 

Vain and presumptuous, he imagined himself to have attained the 
summit of his wishes, when, instead of embracing Hera, he clasped a 
cloud in his arms, which Zeus had purposely .thrown in his way. The 
presumptuous attempts of this mortal to enjoy what is unattainable by 
man, were not only defeated, but punished. He was expelled from 
Olympos, and when he had the temerity to boast on earth of what he 
had attempted in heaven, Zeus precipitated him into Tartaros, where 
Hermes fastened him with brazen bands to an ever-revolving fiery 
wheel. Thus is he obliged to atone for indulging the wishes that in- 
duced him to transgress the boundaries allotted to humanity. His 
restlessness never ceases : but like the wheel of mere human endeavors, 
turns round and round to no purpose. 

SISYPHOS. 

Sisyphos, the son of iEolos, was said to be the founder of Ephyra. 
He married Merope, the daughter of Atlas, by whom he had four sons, 
Glaucos, Ornytion, Thersandros, and Halmos. 

Zeus had carried off iEgina, the daughter of Asopos, and the river- 
god in his search for her came to Corinth. Sisyphos informed him 
that Zeus was her ravisher. The king of the gods then sent Death tc 
punish him ; but Sisyphos contrived to outwit Death, and even to put 
fetters on him ; and there was great joy among mortals, for no one 
died. Hades, however, set Death at liberty, and Sisyphos was given 
up to him. When dying, he charged his wife to leave his body un- 
buried ; then complaining to Hades of her unkindness, he obtained 
permission to return to the light and upbraid her for her conduct. On 
finding himself again in his own house, he refused to leave it. Hermes, 
however, reduced him to obedience, and like the Danaiides, he was con- 
demned to perform an endless task. Hades required him to roll a 
huge rock up a mountain, a never-ending, still beginning toil ; for as 
soon as he has nearly reached the top, and rejoices in the hope of being 
permitted to rest from his hard labor, the rock, in spite of all his en- 
deavors, rolls back again to the plain. 

Sisyphos had lived to a great age, and hence the fiction of his having 
refused to return to Orcus. As he endeavored in this way to prolong 
his days beyond the destined term, the ever-rolling rock, on which he 
vainly exhausts his strength in Tartaros, is, as it were, an emblem of 
the troublesome labor of life, which he was unwilling to abandon. 



420 RECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



MIDAS. 

Pan, favorite of Midas, king of the Phrygians in Macedonia, wished 
also to compete with Apollo in the art of which the latter was master. 
Pan commenced the contest, and Midas repeated his songs with enthu- 
siasm, regardless of his celestial rival, when, to his surprise, the latter 
felt a pair of ears, long and shaggy, pressing through his hair. Alarm- 
ed at this phenomenon, Pan fled. The prince, desolate at the loss of 
his favorite, made his wife the confidante of his misfortune, begging 
her not to betray his trust. She longed to tell the secret, but dared 
not, for fear of punishment ; and, by way of relief, sought a retired 
and lonely spot, where she threw herself upon the ground, and whis- 
pered, " King Midas has the ears of an ass. King Midas has the ears 
of an ass." 

Not long after her visit, some reeds arose in this place, and as the 
wind passed through them, they repeated, " King Midas has the ears 
of an ass." Enraged, no less than terrified at this occurrence. Midas 
sacrificed to Bacchos, who, to console him, desired him to ask what- 
ever he wished. 

" Give me, says he (nor thought he asked too much), 
That with my body whatsoe'er I touch, 
Changed from the nature which it held of old, 
May be converted into yellow gold ! 
He had his wish. But yet, the god repin'd 
To think the fool no better wish could find. 
But the brave king departed from the place, 
With smiles of gladness sparkling in his face : 
Nor could contain ; but, as he took his way, 
Impatient longs to make the first essay. 
Down from a lowly branch a twig he drew, 
The twig straight glittered with a sparkling hue. 
He takes a stone; the stone was turned to gold. 
A clod he touches, and the crumbling mold 
Acknowledged soon the great transforming power, 
In weight and substance like a mass of ore. 
He plucked the corn ; and straight his grasp appears 
Filled with a bending tuft of golden ears. 
An apple next he takes, and seems to hold 
The bright, Hesperian, vegetable gold. 
His hand he careless on a pillar lays, 
With shining gold the fluted pillars blaze." 

"The ready slaves prepare a sumptuous board, 
Spr/ad with rich dainties for their happy lord, 



HERMAPHRODITOS. 42i 

Whose powerful hands the bread no sooner hold, 

But its whole substance is transformed to gold : 

Up to his mouth he lifts the savory meat, 

Which turns to gold as he attempts to eat. 

His patron's noble juice, of purple hue, 

Touched by his lips, a golden cordial grew, 

Unfit for drink, and wondrous to behold, 

It trickles from his jaws a fluid gold. 

The rich, poor fool, confounded with surprise, 

Staring on all his various plenty lies; 

Sick of his wish, he now detests the power 

For which he asked so earnestly before : 

Amidst his gold with pinching famine curst, 

And justly tortured with an equal thirst. 

At last his shining arms to heaven he rears, 

And, in distress, for refuge flies to prayers. 
' O father Bacchos ! I have sinned,' he cried, 
' And foolishly thy gracious gift applied ; 

Thy pity now, repenting I implore ; 

Oh ! may I feel the golden plague no more !' " — Ovid. 

Bacchos directed him to wash in the river Pactolus. and hence that 
ri7er has golden sands. 

LETO AND THE FROGS. 

While wandering from place to place with her children, Leto arrived 
in Lycia. The sun was shining fiercely, and the goddess was parched 
with thirst. Seeing a pool of water, she knelt down by it to drink, 
when some clowns who were there refused to allow her to slake her 
thirst. In vain the goddess entreated, representing that water was 
common to all, and appealing to their compassion for her babes. The 
brutes were insensible, and not only mocked at her distress, but jumped 
into and muddied the water. The goddess, though the most gentle 
of her race, was roused to indignation ; and raising her hands to 
heaven, cried, " May you live for ever in that pool !" Her wish was 
instantly accomplished, and the churls were transformed into frogs. 

HERMAPHRODITOS. 
Hermaphroditos was the offspring of Hermes and Aphrodite. His 
story is thus told by Ovid. 

"From both the illustrious authors of his race 
The child was named ; nor was it hard to trace 
Both the bright parents through the infant's face. 
When fifteen years in Ida's cool retreat 
The boy had told, he left his native seat, 



422 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



And sought fresh fountains in a foreign soil, 

The pleasure lessened the attending toil. 

With eager steps the Lycian fields he crossed, 

And fields that border on the Lycian coast ; 

A river here he viewed so lovely bright, 

It showed the bottom in a fairer light, 

Nor kept a sand concealed from human sight. 

The fruitful banks with cheerful verdure crowned, 

And kept the spring eternal on the ground. 

A nymph presides, nor practised in the chase, 

Nor skilful at the bow, nor at the race ; 

Of all the blue-eyed daughters of the main, 

The only stranger to Diana's train; 

Her sisters often, as 'tis said, would cry 

Fie ! Salmaeis, what, always idle ! Fie ! 

Or take the quiver, or the arrows seize, 

And mix the toils of hunting with thy ease.' 

Nor quivers she, nor arrows e'er would seize, 

Nor mix the toils of hunting with her ease ; 

But oft would bathe her in the crystal tide, 

Oft with a comb her dewy locks divide ; 

Now in the limpid stream she viewed her face, 

And dressed her image in the floating glass : 

On beds of leaves she now reposed her limbs, 

Now gathered flowers that grew about hoi' streams, 

And there by chance was gathering as she stood 

To view the boy" 

Hermaphroditos turned a deaf ear to her love, and Salmaeis, throw 
icg her arms around him, entreated the gods to render her inseparable 
from him whom she adored. The gods heard her prayer, and formed 
of the two a being of perfect beauty, preserving the characteristics of 
both sexes. 

MILO. 

Milo, of whose wonderful strength many curious stories are related, 
was a celebrated athlete of Crotona, in Italy. 

He accustomed himself from early youth to bear burdens, the weight 
of which he gradually augmented, till at last he carried the most pro- 
digious loads with perfect ease. Athenoeus relates, that on one occa- 
sion he carried a steer, four years old, the whole length of the stadium 
at Olympia, and then devoured the whole in one day. Some authori- 
ties add, that he killed it with a single blow of his fist. 

One day, while attending the lectures of Pythagoras, of whom he 
was a disciple and constant hearer, the column which supported the 



PHILOMELA. 433 



ceiling of the hall where they assembled, was observed to totter, when 
Milo, upholding the entire structure by his own strength, allowed all 
present an opportunity of escaping, and then saved himself. 

At the Pythian games Milo was seven times crowned victor, and six 
at the Olympic ; and only ceased to present himself at these contests 
when he found no one willing to be his competitor. 

In B. C. 509, he had the command of an army, sent by the people 
of Crotona against Sybaris, and gained a signal victory. 

His death was a melancholy one. He was already advanced in years, 
when, traversing a forest, he found the trunk of a tree partly cleft by 
wedges. Wishing to sever it entirely, he introduced his hands into the 
opening, and succeeded so far as to cause the wedges to fall out ; but 
his strength here failing him, the separate parts suddenly reunited, and 
his hands remained imprisoned in the cleft. In this situation he was 
devoured by wild beasts. 

PHILOMELA. 

Philomela was a daughter of Pandion, king of Athens, and sister to 
Procne, who married Tereus. king of Thrace 

Procne had a son named Itys. After living some time in Thrace, 
she became desirous of seeing her sister, from whom she had been long 
separated ; and at her request, Tereus went to Athens, and prevailed 
on Pandion to allow Philomela to accompany him to Thrace. But 
instead of taking her directly to her sister, he confined her under the 
promise of returning to marry her as soon as he should have disposed 
of Procne. But fearing that she might communicate his purpose, he 
cut out her tongue. 

She, however, contrived to communicate her story to her sister, 
by means of characters woven into a robe. Procne, who had been in- 
formed by Tereus that Philomela had died by the way, was plunged 
in the deepest affliction for her loss. She now sought her out and 
released her. In revenge, Procne resolved to inflict the greatest pos- 
sible suffering upon Tereus. She therefore killed her own son, Itys, 
and served up his flesh to his father. The two sisters then fled ; and 
Tereus, discovering the truth, pursued them with an axe. Finding 
themselves nearly overtaken, they prayed the gods to turn them into 
birds. Procne immediately became a nightingale, and Philomela a 
mallow. Tereus was also changed, and became a hoopoo. 

This legend is one of those invented to account mythically for the 



424 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

habits and properties of animals. The twitter of the swallow sounds 
like Itysj Itys. The note of the nightingale was regarded as lugubri- 
ous, and the hoopoo chases these birds. 

CEPHALOS AND PROCRIS. 

Cephalos, son of Diioneus, king of Phocis, married Procris, the beau- 
tiful daughter of Erectheus, king of Athens. 

Soon after, as he was on Mount Hymettus, pursuing the deer at 
dawn of day, he was seen and carried off by Aurora. The society of 
the goddess was to Cephalos no equivalent for the loss of his beloved 
wife. Aurora tried every art to reconcile him to his present state, and 
to induce him to exchange for ever a terrestrial for a celestial abode. 
Still her endeavors were fruitless. Cephalos longed for Procris, and 
his former abode. At last, when the goddess found that all her bland- 
ishments were unavailing, that his heart was full of his wife, and her 
name for ever on his lips, she dismissed him ; at the same time inti- 
mating, that the time would arrive when he should repent of having 
preferred to a goddess a mortal woman, who in the bitterness of his 
soul he would wish never to have seen. 

These words effected the object intended by the incensed goddess, 
for they filled the heart of Cephalos with jealousy and suspicion to- 
wards his wife. For the purpose of trying her fidelity, he returned 
disguised to Procris, presenting himself to her as a lover. She receiv- 
ed his overtures with disdain. But Cephalos, once experiencing the 
sting of jealousy in his heart, after having made himself known, load- 
ed her with reproaches, and left her in a transport of rage. He was 
afterwards prevailed upon to become reconciled to her. Procris soon 
after became jealous of him, having heard that he loved the nymph 
Aura, with whom he held secret intervews, at the same time pretend- 
ing to her that he was going to hunt. 

To convince herself of the truth of this, she went to the spot which 
was designated as their place of meeting, and concealed herself behind 
some trees. Cephalos soon arrived, breathless and panting from the 
fatigues of the chase, and throwing himself upon the grass, exclaimed, 
Aura ! Aura ! meaning, by the words, nothing more than gentle 
breeze, fresh air. Pr.ocris, supposing that she heard the name of her 
rival, moved from behind the trees ; and Cephalos, supposing the rust- 
ling that he heard to be occasioned by some wild beast, drew his bow, 



PHAETHON. 426 



and the fatal arrow pierced the heart of Procris, who, when dying, was 
convinced of the groundlessness of her suspicions. 

PHAETHON. 

Phaethon ( Gleaming) was a son of Helios and the ocean-nymph 
Clymene. Venus intrusted him with the care of one of her temples. 
This distinguished favor of the goddess rendered him so vain and as- 
piring, that Epaphos, a son of Zeus, to check his pride, disputed his 
claims to a celestial origin. Phaethon, to refute this bitter reproach, 
resolved to know his true origin ; and, at the instigation of his mother, 
visited the palace of the Sun, to beg that Helios, if he really were his 
father, would give him some proof of his paternal tenderness, and con- 
vince the world of his legitimacy. Helios swore by the Styx, that he 
would grant him whatever he required. The ambitious youth instantly 
demanded permission to guide the solar chariot for one day, in order 
to prove himself the undoubted progeny of the Sun-god. Not daring 
to violate the oath by Styx, and finding entreaties and remonstrances 
unavailing to dissuade him from his perilous enterprise, Helios com- 
plied with his wish, and Phaethon courageously and joyfully mounted 
the chariot of the Sun. 

No sooner, however, did the celestial coursers discover that they 
were guided by a feebler hand than that of Helios, than they disre- 
garded the efforts of the new charioteer, and leaving their usual course, 
now approached too near the heavens, and now again so close to earth, 
that the mountains began to blaze, and the rivers and fountains dried 
up. Earth, in her extremity, besought Jupiter for help. Enraged at 
the presumption of this new driver of the celestial horses, Jupiter struck 
him with one of his thunderbolts, by which he was precipitated into the 
river Eridanos. There his three sisters, the Heliades, or daughters 
of the sun, Lampetia, Phaethusa, and iEgle. who tenderly loved their 
brother, lamented his loss so long, that at length the gods were touched 
with compassion for their grief, and changed them into poplar trees. 
Their tears, which still continued to flow, became amber as they drop- 
ped into the stream. 

Cycnos, also, the chosen friend of the ill-fated Phaethon, lamented 
his death on the banks of the Eridanos, till his form, dissolved in tears, 
was changed to that of a swan, which always remained on the water 
that swallowed his beloved friend. 



426 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



PHILEMON AND BAUCIS. 

In Phrygia, as a beautiful ancient tale relates, Jupiter laid aside his 
thunderbolts and Mercury his caduceus, and assuming the form of 
wayfarers, wandered in disguise among men, in order to try their 
characters and actions. 

One evening, when as weary travellers they sought for hospitality, 
the doors of the rich were closed against them. At length they ap- 
proached the abode of Philemon and Baucis, a pious couple, but poor, 
and already advanced in years, and in their humble cottage they were 
received with hospitality and kindness. The gods were served with a 
supper such as the cottage afforded, and the wine bowl being sponta- 
neously replenished, the quality of the guests was revealed. 

The guests after having declared themselves to be Jupiter and Mer- 
cury, told their host that they intended to destroy the neighboring 
town, and desired them to leave their dwelling and ascend the adjacent 
hill. The aged couple obeyed, and ere they had reached its summit 
they turned round and beheld the waste and destruction wherewith the 
gods had punished the hard-heartedness of the inhabitants of the coun- 
try. The houses and palaces of the rich were ruined by a deluge, 
while the poor, hospitable cottage still raised its roof above the floods, 
and before the astonished eyes of its late inhabitants, was transformed 
into a magnificent temple. 

On being desired by Jupiter to express their wishes, they prayed 
that they might be appointed to officiate in that temple, bringing offer- 
ings to Jove, the patron and rewarder of hospitality, and finally be 
united in death as in life. Their prayer was granted ; and as they 
were one day standing before the temple, they were changed into trees, 
an oak and a lime. These trees overshadowed the temple, and in their 
memory were long afterwards called Philemon and Baucis. 

In this and similar traditions of old, the dreadful as well as benefi- 
cent power of the deities was recognized. Altars were every where 
erected to Jupiter Hospitalis. Strangers arriving at any place where 
the}' were destitute of friends, were under his immediate protection, 
and guests were considered as sacred and inviolable persons ; for in 
strangers and guests the celestials were revered, who often came down 
from Oiympos in human form, in order to mingle among mankind 



PYRAMUS AND THISBE. 427 



PYRAMUS AND THISBE. 

Pyramus and Thisbe were two young Thebans, whose union was 
opposed by their families, between whom there had been a variance for 
many years. 

They determined, however, if possible, to elude the vigilance of their 
persecutors, and agreed to meet outside the walls of the city, under a 
mulberry tree, and there to celebrate their union. Thisbe first arrived 
at the appointed place, when the sudden appearance of a lioness so 
frightened her that she fled, dropping her veil in her fright. This the 
lioness smeared with blood, and then disappeared, leaving it under the 
trysting tree. 

In a short time Pyramus arrived, and found that she for whom he 
looked was absent, The bloody veil alone met his gaze. He instantly 
recognized it, and concluding that Thisbe had been torn to pieces by 
wild beasts, drew his sword and killed himself. 

When the fears of Thisbe had passed away, she returned to the mul« 
berry tree. 

" But when her view the bleeding love confessed, 

She shrieked, she tore her hair, she beat her breast, 

She raised the body, and embraced it round, 

And bathed with tears unfeigned the gaping wound, 

Then her warm lips to the cold face applied— 
1 And is it thus, ah ! thus we meet,' she cried, 
' My Pyramus, whence sprang thy cruel fate '? 

My Pyramus, ah ! speak, ere 'tis too late : 

I, thy own Thisbe, but one word implore, 

One word thy Thisbe never asked be&re ! 

Fate, though it conquers, shall no triumph gain, 

Fate, that divides us, still divides in vain. 

Now, both our cruel parents, hear my prayer, 

My prayer to offer for us both I dare ; 

Oh ! see our ashes in one urn confined, 

Whom love at first, and fate at last has joined. 

Thou tree, where now one lifeless lump is laid, 

Ere long o'er two shalt cast a friendly shade. 

Still, let our loves from thee be understood, 

Still witness, in thy purple fruit, our blood.' — 

She spoke, and in her bosom plunged the sword 

All warm and reeking from its slaughtered lord."— Ovid. 



428 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

TITHONOS. 

Tithonos, a handsome youth, was a son of the Trojan king, Laome- 
don. Going out one day with his flocks he returned no more ; and 
Fiction explained his loss by saying that Aurora beheld him and car- 
ried him off for his beauty. 

Aurora besought Jupiter to render him immortal. The request was 
granted ; and, according to the poets, Aurora rises every morning from 
the bed of Tithonos to open the gates of the sky. The only offspring 
of this marriage was Memnon, a king of Ethiopia, who took part in 
the Trojan war, and was slain by Achilles. 

Although immortal, and the husband of a goddess, the happiness of 
Tithonos was incomplete. When Aurora prayed to Jupiter to grant 
him immortality, she forgot to ask at the same time for exemption 
from old age ; and thus her husband, exhausted by years and infirm- 
ity, withered away, so that his voice was scarcely left to him. At 
length he prayed for dissolution, and was changed into a grasshopper ; 
for the decrees of Fate, according to which he was rendered immortal, 
can never be reversed. 

ENDYMION. 

Among all the favorites of the gods, the handsome sportsman En- 
dymion was honored by Fiction with the highest preference, since 
Diana, the severe goddess of chastity, attracted by his charms, became 
sensible of the power of love. 

Endymion's abode was on the lonely mountain Latmos, in Caria, a 
province of Asia Minor. By moonlight he pursued the chase of the 
deer through the forest, until worn out by fatigue, he sank into the 
arms of sleep. Then it was that Diana, rising with glimmering torch 
in the vault of heaven, beheld the slumbering youth. All was lonely 
and silent. She stopped the steeds that drew her car, and gliding 
slowly from the height of the sky down to the lips of the slumberer, she. 
for the first time, kissed them in glowing love. Thus Endymion e- 
joyed, sleeping, a happiness which had never fallen to the lot eithe 
of gods or men. 

The eternal sleep of Endymion is in ancient story assigned to vari- 
ous causes. Some say that he begged Zeus to give him immortality. 
Zeus then bestowed upon him the boon of perpetual youth, united with 
perpetual sleep. Others state that Zeus threw him into everlasting 



ANCHISES. 



42i> 




sleep as a punishment for his love for Hera. These stories are un- 
questionably poetical fictions, in which sleep is personified. His name 
and attributes confirm this opinion. Endymion signifies a being that 
gently comes over one. He is called a king, because he has power 
over all living creatures ; a shepherd, because he slumbered in the cool 
caves of Mount Latmos, that is, " the Mount of Oblivion ;" and, lastly, 
nothing can be more beautiful than the idea of his being kissed by the 
soft rays of the Moon. 

ANCHISES, 

Anchises, son of Calyps and Themis, attracted Venus by his beauty, 
and she introduced herself to his notice in the form of a nymph on 
Mount Ida, and urged him to a union. Anchises no sooner discovered 
that he had been in the company of a celestial being, than he dreaded 
the vengeance of the gods. Venus then addressed him in these words; 



430 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

" Dismiss all fear ! Thou shalt suffer no harm because of my love. I 
will not supplicate for thee immortality, as Aurora did for her Titho- 
nos ; but swift age shall steal upon thee, even as upon the rest of mor- 
tal men. The nymphs of the forest are to nurse thy son, and when he 
has reached manhood, then thine eyes shall feast on his godlike form ; 
should any one ask thee of thy son's mother, thou art to answer, she 
was one of the nymphs that dwell upon these mountains. Beware 
thou boast not of my love, or the lightnings of Jove shall fall upon 
thy head ! These words engrave deeply in thy heart, and beware of 
the celestials !." 

Anchises disobeyed her injunction, and boasted of the partiality of 
the goddess, for which Jupiter struck him with blindness. The off- 
spring of this union with Venus was the celebrated iEneias When 
Troy was in flames, Anchises was saved from the victorious Greeks by 
his son, who bore him on his shoulders away from the burning city. 
He afterwards accompanied iEneias in his voyage to Italy ; but died 
at the harbor of Depranum, at the island of Sicily, before the land was 
reached, and was buried on Mount Eryx. 

MERCURY AND HERSE. 

As Mercury met the maidens that were carrying the sacred baskets 
to the temple of Minerva, he beheld Herse, the beautiful daughter of 
Cecrops. Admiring her charms, he resolved to have her for a wife, and 
for that purpose entered the royal abode, where dwelt the three sis- 
ters, Aglauros, Paudrosos, and Herse. Mercury was first met by Ag- 
lauros, who felt great displeasure at his preference for her sister. He 
entreated her good offices, which she promised on condition that he 
would reward her with a large quantity of gold, and immediately drove 
him from the palace till he should obtain it. 

Minerva, incensed at the cupidity of Aglauros, and provoked with 
her also for other causes, sent Envy to fill her bosom with that baleful 
passion. Unable then to endure the happiness of her sister, she sat 
down at the door, determined not to permit the god to enter. He be- 
sought her to admit him, but his eloquence was vain. At length, pro- 
voked by her obstinacy, he turned her into a black ? + one. 



HYACINTHOS. 431 



NARCISSOS. 

The beautiful youth Narcissos was son of the river-god Cephissos, 
and the sea-nymph Liriope. 

According to Pausanias, Narcissos had a sister of remarkable beauty, 
to whom he was tenderly attached. She resembled him in features, 
was similarly attired, and accompanied him in the hunt. She died 
young, and Narcissos, deeply lamenting her death, frequented a neigh- 
boring fountain to gaze upon his own image in its stream. The strong 
resemblance that he bore to his sister made his own reflection appear 
to him, as it were, the form of her whom he had lost. The gods looked 
with pity upon his grief, and changed him to the flower that bears his 
name. 

The flower alluded to in this story of Narcissus is termed by botan- 
ists, the Narcissus poeticus. It loves the borders of streams, and is 
admirably personified in this touching legend ; for bending its fragile 
stem, it seems to seek its own image in the waters that run murmuring 
by, and soon fades away and dies. 

ACTION. 

Actaeon was the son of Aristceos and Autonoe, daughter of Cadmos, 
He was reared by Cheiron, and becoming passionately fond of the 
chase, passed his days chiefly in pursuit of wild beasts that haunted 
Mount Cithaeron. One sultry day as he was rambling alone, he chanced 
to surprise Artemis and her nymphs while bathing. The goddess, 
incensed at his intrusion, threw some water upon him, and changed 
him into a stag. She also inspired with madness the fifty dogs that 
attended him ; when they ran down and devoured their master They 
then roamed about, whining, till they came to the cave of Cheiron, who 
appeased their grief by making an image of Actaeon. 

HYACINTHOS 

Hyacinthos, a son of (Ebalos, prince of Lacedasmon, was the favorite 
of Apollo. Apollo and Hyacinthos contended with each other in throw- 
ing the quoit. The fatal instrument was thrown with such force by 
Apollo, that it rebounded and struck Hyacinthos in the face, when he 
fell dead to the ground. The god unable to save his life, called forth 
from his ashes the flower that bears his name. 

Other versions of the same legend say, that Zephyros (west-icind). 



432 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



enraged at Hyacinthos having preferred Apollo to himself, blew the 
discus against the head of the youth, and so killed him. 

A festival called the Hyacinthia was celebrated for three days in the 
summer of each year at Amyclae, in honor of the god and his unhappy 
favorite. 

CYTARISSOS. 

Cyparissos, another beautiful youth, and favorite of Apollo, was 
doomed to an early death. A tame stag, which had been his delight 
from his childhood, and to which he was most affectionately attached, 
was shot by the hapless youth himself in the gloom of a forest. The 
incident so deeply affected him that he became disgusted with life, and 
wandered mourning through the loneliest shades of the forest, until 
death freed him from his grief. Apollo called forth the dark cypress 
from his grave, which has immortalized the name of the youth, and 
6till continues to be a symbol of mourning. 

LEUCOTHOE. 

Leucothoe, the daughter of Orchamos, secretly loved Apollo ; but 
their intercourse was betrayed to her severe father by the jealous Cly- 
tia, and Orchamos buried his daughter alive. Apollo could not save 
her, and he therefore caused the frankincense shrub to spring from her 
grave, as a lasting monument both of her tenderness and her fate. 

Clytia by her treason had for ever forfeited the love of the god. In- 
consolable at her loss, she turned her face nine days towards the sun, 
the shining archetype of Apollo, without taking either food or drink. 

At last, consumed by her grief, she became metamorphosed into the 
sun-flower, and in that form still turns her face constantly towards the 
sun. 

DAPHNE. 

" The first love of Phoebus," says Ovid, '•'• was Daphne, the daughter 
of Peneios." Apollo, proud of his victory over the Python, beholding 
Eros bending his bow, mocked at the efforts of the puny archer. Eros 
was incensed, and taking his stand on Parnassos, shot his golden arrow 
of love into the heart of the son of Leto, and discharged his leaden one 
of aversion into the bosom of the nymph of Peneios. 

Daphne loved the chase, indifferent to all other pleasurs, and reject- 
ed the love of Apollo, who pursued her to the banks of her father's 
stream. Stretching forth her hands, she called on the river-god for 



CEYX AND HALCYONE. 



433 



protection. Peneios heard her prayer. Bark and leaves covered his 
daughter, and she became a bay tree, which has ever since been sacred 
to Apollo, and its leaves always crown his brow. 

ATTIS. 

Even Cybele, the grave mother of the gods, chose her favorite. Her 
choice fell upon the handsome youth Attis, who, forsaking his paternal 
fields, hastened to the Phrygian forests, there to devote himself with 
out reserve to the service of the chaste goddess. She enjoined upon 
him never to prefer any other female, whether goddess or mortal. For- 
getting this injunction, he suffered himself to be captivated with the 
charms of the beautiful nymph Sangaris, and drew the wrath of the 
deity upon himself as well as the object of his love. For this offence 
he was punished by fits of frenzy, in one of which he maimed himself. 

An ancient fiction represents Attis in a touching manner, as stand- 
ing on the sea shore, and during a lucid interval, looking over the waves 
to the distant land, where, with his parents and companions, he had 
dreamed the sweet dream of his childhood. The goddess approached 
him in her chariot drawn by lions, and again, frantic fury suddenly 
seized him, and he hastened to the woody top of the mountain, there 
to roam and rage until he died in the lonely wilderness. 

CEYX AND HALCYONE. 

Ceyx, king of Trachis, was son of the Morning-Star. He married 
Haley one, a daughter of iEolos, son of Deucalion. 

In the fable of the marriage of Ceyx and Halcyone, the Thessalian 
princess, is expressed the pleasure which the inhabitants of Thessalv 
experienced, when from the lofty cliffs of Olympos or of Ossa, or from 
the more cultivated declivities of Pelion, they looked down upon the 
wide expanse of sea, and beheld the swelling waves subside after a 
storm, the islands appear in the distance as the dark clouds broke 
away, when the white sails of the many little vessels ventured forth 
upon the sea. 

Ceyx went to Claros to consult the oracle of Apollo, and was wreck- 
ed on his return. Halcyone, finding her husband's corpse upon the 
shore, was about to throw herself into the sea, when both were chang- 
ed by the gods into birds called Halcyons During seven days of 
winter the Halcyon sits on her eggs, and during seven more, she feeds 
kci young upon the smooth surface of the waves, which then are calm 
nd free from storm, and are called the Halcyon days of winter. 

28 



484 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 



ORPHEUS. 

Thrace is represented by the poets as the seat of whatever is wild, 
impetuous, or cruel. There the fierce god of war was chiefly worship- 
ped. There Diomedes, a Thracian, and a son of Mars, is said to have 
had every stranger who was so unfortunate as to fall into his hands, 
thrown to his horses, to be devoured. Tereus, another Thracian, and 
also a son of Mars, cut out the tongue of the unfortunate Philomela, 
lest she should betray the crime he had committed against her. Ac- 
cording to fiction, Thrace was also that country where the rough, 
stormy Boreas had his dwelling, for which reason those unknown 
nations that lived beyond Thrace were called Hyperboreans. 

Thrace is also fabled to have been the native place of Orpheus, son of 
Apollo and the muse Calliope ; that divine bard, who, by his song and 
the tones of his lyre, tamed the fierceness of forest beasts, moved rocks 
and trees, and, like a being sent from heaven, first taught mortals to 
listen to his harmonious notes, when he was chanting the praises of 
the celestials. The divine bard, not less renowned for his wisdom 
than for his skill in poesy and music, became also the founder of re- 
ligious mysteries. 

His wife, a nymph named Eurydice, died from the bite of a serpent. 
Orpheus, disconsolate at her loss, determined to descend to the lower 
world, and obtain permission for his beloved Eurydice to return to the 
regions of light. Armed only with his lyre, he entered the realms of 
Hades, and gained an easy admittance to the palace of Pluto. At the 
music of his " golden shell," to borrow the beautiful language of an 
cient poetry, the wheel of Ixion stopped, Tantalos forgot the thirst that 
tormented him, the Vulture ceased to prey on the vitals of Tityos, and 
Pluto and Proserpina lent a favoring ear to his prayer. 

Eurydice was allowed to return with Orpheus, on condition that he 
should not look back at her until she had reached the higher world, 
and again beheld the light of day. But when they had nearly attain- 
ed the opening above, and were about to leave the gloomy abode of the 
shades, tender anxiety, and doubt whether his dear companion was 
really following him. induced Orpheus to look back. He beheld his 
wife close behind him, but for the last time. Falling back, she again 
disappeared in the nightly darkness of Orcus, and all the sweet hope 
of Orpheus vanished like a dream. The joy of life was now for ever 
lost, and his lyre was silent. 



CUPID AND PSYCHE. 43fl 



From the Thracian mountains resounded the ferocious clamor of the 
Maenades, at a. Bacchic festival, who, angry at the bard for the con- 
tempt shown to them by his sorrow for Eurydice. fell upon him and 
tore him to pieces. Thus Orpheus, the son of Apollo, the divine poet, 
musician, and philosopher, fell a victim to the frantie fury of the devo 
tees of Bacehos. 

CUPiD AND PSYCHE. 

One of the most charming fictions transmitted to us from antiquity, 
is that of Cupid and Psyehe. It involves the most sublime ideas of 
life, death, and immortality, as far as we may look for such ideas 
among the religious heathens of ancient times. The name of Psyche 
signifies both a butterfly and the human soul. Therefore, when rep- 
resented with the wings of a butterfly attached to her shoulders, Psy- 
che is, as it were, the emblem of a tender spiritual being, who, freed 
from the coarser covering of her -chrysalis, is too sublimated for this 
lower world, and rises to a higher existence, where, united with Love, 
in sacred and mutual marriage, she participates in that bliss which the 
immortals themselves enjoy. This fiction forms the veil, which in a 
most agreeable manner coneeals the terrors of the lower world. 

Psyche, the most lovely of mortals, was the daughter of a powerful 
monarch, and the youngest of three sisters. So transcendent was her 
beauty, that no mortal man dared sue for her hand ; and her father's 
subjects, neglecting the worship of Venus, raised altars to Psyche. 
Her parents exulted in this general homage paid to their daughter, and 
her sisters, somewhat jealous of her superior beauty, pleased them- 
selves with the thought that while they were married, she would never 
have a husband. Both parents and sisters, however, soon found them- 
selves disappointed in the anticipations in which they had indulged. 
The former eonsulted an oracle as to her future fate and were com- 
manded to array their daughter in festive attire, and then eonduct 
her as if to her burial to the summit of a mountain, and there to aban- 
don her till her destined husband should come for her. 

Venus, resolving to revenge herself upon the innocent Psyche, sent 
Cupid to inspire her with a passion for the ugliest of mortals. But 
Cupid no sooner saw Psyche, than he laid aside his bow and arrows, 
and resolved to make her his wife. For this purpose he went to 
Zephyros, the god of the west-wind, and Somnus, the god of sleep, to 
ask their assistance. No sooner did Psyche find herself alone, than a 
profound sleep stole over her senses, and then she was tenderly raised 



436 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY, 

by Zephyr, who carried her to the abode prepared for her by Love. 
She found herself transported to an unknown region, but the most 
charming she had ever seen. A magnificent palace, surrounded by 
beautiful groves and beds of flowers, was at her disposal ; she was mis- 
tress of many invisible attendants, by whom her commands were in- 
tantly obeyed. But he who had bestowed upon her this delightful 
abode, she was not permitted to behold. He visited her only at night y 
telling her with a sweetly-sounding voice, that he was the husband 
allotted to her by the immortals, at the same time warning and entreat- 
ing her never to inquire who he was, for then she would for ever lose 
his love, and become miserable. 

But in the midst of a heavenly happiness, Psyche longed to see her 
parents once more, or at least her sisters, that she might dissipate the 
grief of her family on account of her fate. Her husband, seeing that 
all the entreaties and remonstrances with which he endeavored to 
banish this wish from her heart were vain, at last consented that she 
should receive a visit from her sisters. Zephyr was accordingly ordered 
to convey them to Psyche's abode. No sooner had they arrived and 
beheld the happiness which was allotted to their sister, than envy filled 
their hearts, destroying every better feeling ; and after having heard 
the particular circumstances under which Psyche enjoyed her matri- 
monial happiness, they infused into her mind the suspicion that her 
husband must Tbe a hideous monster, because he dreaded to be seen. 
Their malevolence even went so far as to persuade their sister, by 
every possible art, to transgress the positive commands of her hus- 
band, and, by the use of a dagger, to rid herself of the monster wheD 
buried in sleep. 

The sisters were carried away by Zephyr, and poor Psyche, whose 
mind was agitated by contending passions, resolved at last to follow 
the malevolent counsel which they had given her. When Night had 
expanded her wings over her blessed abode, and her husband was 
buried in repose, she took the lamp, and a dagger which she had con- 
cealed, and stepped, with fainting knees and a trembling hand, to the 
couch of the unknown. But instead of the monster whom she had 
expected to see, she beheld the most beautiful of the immortals. Cupid, 
God of Love! She attempted gently to withdraw the lamp, but her 
hand trembled, and a drop of hot oil fell on the god's shoulder. Cupid 
started up from his sleep, and beholding his wife, with a lamp and dag- 
ger, cast a look on the wretched Psyche, in which rage, scorn, and pity 



CUPID AND PSYCHE. 437 



were intermingled. He then mounted on his wings, never more to 
return. 

When Psyche felt that she had lost the love and esteem of her 
adored husband, despair took possession of her mind, and she attempted 
to put a period to her existence. She threw herself into the neighbor- 
ing stream, but the river-god feared Love, and gently carried her to 
the opposite bank. Here she met with Pan, who endeavored to console 
her by the prediction that she was destined at a future period to be 
once more happy. 

Psyche's sisters, who had anticipated the consequences of their fatal 
counsel, and. who now wished to succeed their unfortunate sister. 
placed themselves one after the other on the summit of the mountain, 
from which Psyche had been carried away, hoping that Zephyros would 
convey them to the wished-for residence • but being hurled into the 
abyss by sudden blasts of wind, they atoned by their deaths for the 
envy and treachery which they had displayed towards their innocent 
sister. 

Poor Psyche overran the whole earth in sear eh of her lost husband. 
But finding all her endeavors vain, she at last took the resolution of 
applying to Venus, and imploring mercy from her. Venus, incensed 
with the fair suppliant, because she had charmed CupicL, and because 
of her celestial beauty, received her with reproaches, imposing upon 
her the severest tasks, the performance of which seemed impossible. 
Psyche, however, assisted by beneficent beings, whom Cupid, who still 
loved her, sent to her aid, surmounted all difficulties; yet for a long 
time she was obliged to suffer the consequences of her imprudjnee, 
until she was again thought worthy of her forfeited happiness. At 
last, she was ordered by Venus to descend into Orcus itself, and to 
fetch from Proserpina a box containing the highest charms of beauty. 
Psyche obeyed the command of the cruel goddess, and set out on the 
dreadful enterprise, despairing of success ; but the voice of her invisi- 
ble protector and guide taught her every necessary precaution, and 
warned her of every danger. 

Provided with a cake to tame the fury of Cerberos, and a sum of 
money to gain the good-will of Charon, she ventured down to the 
gloomy regions, and arrived safely at the palace of Proserpina. The 
desired box was delivered to her, but with a strict injunction not to 
open it. Psyche, who had surmounted so many difficulties, and sus- 
tained with heroic fortitude so many trials, suffered herself to bo over • 



438 GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 

powered by this last. Scarcely had she left the dominions of Pluto, 
when curiosity and vanity induced her to open the box. She was in- 
stantly involved in a black and noxious vapor, which threw her into a 
deep sleep, from which she would never have risen, had not Cupid, her 
invisible proteetor, hastened to her assistance. He restored her to 
life, collected the vapor again into the box, and conducted his beloved 
Psyche safely to the throne of Jove, there proclaiming her as his law- 
ful wife, and supplicating for her admission among the immortals. 
Jupiter complied with his request, endowed her with immortality, and 
Venus became reconciled to her beauteous daughter-in-law. The 
Hours shed roses through the sky, the Graces sprinkled the halls of 
Heaven with fragrant odors, Apollo played on his lyre, the Arcadian 
god on his reeds, the Muses sang in chorus, while Venus danced with 
grace and elegance, to celebrate the nuptials of her son. Thus the 
celestials celebrated the second, the heavenly marriage of Cunid and 
Psyche. 

TRANSLATION OF PINDAR'S SECOND ODE. 

The islands of the blest, they say, 

The islands of the blest, 
Are peaceful and happy by night and day, 

Far away in the glorious West. 

They need not the moon in that land of delight, 

They need not the pale, pale star; 
The sun he is bright, by day and night, 

Where the souls of the blessed are. 

They till not the ground, they plough not the wav^ 

They labor not — never ! oh, never ! 
Not a tear do they shed, not a sigh do they heave. 

They are happy for ever and ever. 

Soft is the breeze, like the evening one 

When the sun hath gone to his rest ; 
And the sky is pure, and the clouds there are none, 

In the islands of the blest. 

The deep, clear sea, in its mazy bed, 

Doth garlands of gems unfold; 
Not a tree but it blazes with crowns for the deal, 

Even flowers of living gold. 

Cambridge University Mascirinr 



APPENDIX. 



Oba'co -uk was used fay the ancients to designate both the revelations made by thr 
Deity to man, as well as the place in which such revelations were made. The Deity 
was in none of these places believed to appear in person to man, and to communicate 
to him his will or knowledge of the future, but all oracular revelations were made 
through some kind of medium, which, as we shall see hereafter, was different in the 
different places where oracles existed. It may, on first sight, seem strange that there 
were, comparatively speaking, so few oracles of Zeus, the father and ruler of gods and 
men. Although, according to the belief of the ancients, Zeus himself was the first 
source of all oracular revelations, yet he was too far above men to enter into any close 
relation with them. Other gods, therefore, especially Apollo, and even heroes, acted 
as mediators between Zeus and men, and were, as it were, the organs through which 
he communicated his wilL The fact that the ancients consulted the will of the gods 
on all important occasions of public and private life, arose partly from the great reve- 
rence for the gods, so peculiar to them, by which they were led not to undertake any 
thing of importance without their sanction. It should be borne in mind, that an oracle 
was not merely a revelation to satisfy the curiosity of man, but, at the same time, a 
sanction or authorization by the deity of what man intended to do or not to do. We 
subjoin a list of the Greek oracles, chssed according to the deities to whom they be- 
longed. 

I. ORACLES OF APOLLO. 

1. The Oracle of Delphi was the most celebrated of all the oracles of Apollo. Some 
account of it has already been given. During its best period, it was believed to give 
its answers and advice to every one who came with a pure heart, and had no evil 
designs. If he had committed a crime, the answer was refused until he had atoned for 
it ; and he who consulted the god for bad purposes, was sure to accelerate his own ruin. 
No religious institution in all antiquity obtained such a paramount influence, not only 
in Greece, but in all countries around the Mediterranean, in all matters of importance, 
whether relating to religion or to politics, to private or to public life, as the oracle of 
Delphi. When consulted on a subject of a religious nature, the answer was invariably 
of a kind calculated not only to protect and preserve religious institutions, but to com- 
mand new ones to be established, so that it was the preserver and promoter of religion 
throughout the ancient world ; colonies were seldom or never founded without having 
obtained the advice and direction of the Delphic God. Hence the oracle was consulted 
in all disputes between a colony and its metropolis, as well as in cases where several 
•tates claimed to be the metropolis of a colony. 



440 APPENDIX. 



The Delphic oracle had at all times a leaning in favor of the Greeks of the Doric 
race ; but the time when it began to lose its influence must be dated from the period 
when Athens and Sparta entered upon their struggle for the supremacy of Greece. At 
his time the partiality for Sparta became so manifest, that the Athenians and their 
party began to lose all reverence and esteem for it, and the oracle became a mere in- 
strument in the hands of a political party. In the times of Cicero and Plutarch, many 
believed that the oracle had lost the powers which it had possessed in former days; but 
it still continued to be consulted down to the times of the Emperor Julian, until at last 
it was entirely done away with by the Emperor Theodosius. 

Notwithstanding the general obscurity and ambiguity of most of the oracles given at 
Delphi, there are many, also, which convey so clear and distinct a meaning, that they 
could not possibly be misunderstood. So that a wise agency at the bottom of the 
oracles cannot be denied ; the manner in which this agency has been explained at dif- 
ferent times, varies greatly according to the spirit of the age. During the best period 
of their history, the Greeks, generally speaking, had undoubtedly a sincere faith in the 
oracle, its counsels and directions. When the sphere in which it had most benefited 
Greece, became narrowed and confined to matters of a private nature, the oracle could 
no longer command the veneration with which it had been looked upon before. The 
pious and believing heathens, however, thought the god no longer bestowed his care 
upon the oracle, and that he was beginning to withdraw from it, while free-thinkers 
and unbelievers looked upon the oracle as a skilful contrivance of priest-craft which 
had then outgrown itself. This latter opinion has also been adopted by many modern 
writers. The early Christian writers, seeing that some extraordinary power must in 
several cases have been at work, represented it as an institution of the evil spirit. In 
modern rimes opinions are very much divided ; Hiillman, for example, has endeavored 
to show that the oracle of Delphi was entirely managed and conducted by the aristo- 
cratic families of Delphi, which thus are described as forming a sort of hierarchical 
senate for all Greece. If so, the Delphic senate surely was the wisest of all in the his- 
tory of the ancient world. Klausen, on the other hand, seems inclined to allow some 
truly divine influence, and, at all events, thinks that, even in so far as it was merely 
managed by men, it acted in most cases according to pure and lofty moral principles. 

2. Oracle at Abcc, in Pkocis. An oracle was believed to have existed here from very 
early times, and was held in high esteem by the Phocians. Some years before the 
Persian invasion, the Phocians gained a victory over the Thessalians, in which they 
obtained, among other spoils, four thousand shields, half of which they dedicated in the 
temple of Apollo at Abae, and half in that at Delphi. The oracle was, like many others 
consulted by Crcesus, but he does not seem to have found it agreeing with his wiihes. 
In the Persian invasion of Xerxes, the Temple of Abae was burned down, and like 
several temples destroyed in this invasion, was never rebuilt. The oracle itself, how- 
ever, remained, and before the battle of Leuctra. promised victory to the Thebans ; but 
in the Phocian or sacred war, when some Phocian fugitives had taken refuge in the 
ruins, they were entirely destroyed by the Thebans; but even after this calamity, the 
oracle seems to have been consulted — for the Romans, from reverence for it, allowed the 
people of Abse to govern themselves. Hadrian built a small temple by the side of the 
old one, the ruins of which were seen in the time of Pausanias. 

3. Oracle on the Hill of Ptoon, in the territory of Thebes. When Alexander the 
Great destroyed Thebes, the oracle also perished. In the time of Plutarch the whole 
district was completely desolate. 

4. Oracle of Apollo at Ismenion, in Bceotia, south of Thebes. The Temple of Apollo 
Ismenios was the national sanctuary of the Thebans. The oracle was here not given 



APPENDIX. 441 



by inspiration, as in other places, but from the inspection of the victims. On one 
occasion it gave its prophecy from a huge cobweb in the Temple of Demeter. 

5. Oracle of Apollo at Hysicc, on the frontiers of Attica. This place contained an 
oracle of Apollo with a sacred well, from which those drank who wished to become 
inspired. In the time of Pausanias, the oracle had become extinct. 

6. Oracle of Apollo at Tegyra, was an ancient and much-frequented oracle, which was 
conducted by the prophets. The Pythia, on one occasion, declared this to be the birth 
place of Apollo. In the time of Plutarch the whole district was a wilderness. 

7. Oracle of Apollo in the village of Eutresis, in the neighborhood of Leuctra. This 
oracle became extinct during the Macedonian period. 

8. Oracle of Apollo at Grobice, in Eubcea. 

9. Oracle of Apollo in the Lyceum at Argos. The oracle was here given by a pro- 
phetess. 

10. Oracle of Apollo at DeWadiotes, on the acropolis of Larissa. The oracle was 
given by a prophetess. 

11. Oracle of Apollo at Didyma, usually called the oracle of the Branchidae, in the 
territory of Miletus. This was the oracle generally consulted by the Ionians and Mo- 
lians. The oracles were probably inspired in a manner similar to that at Delphi. The 
principles which it followed in its courses and directions were also the same as those 
followed by the Delphians. Crcesus made to this oracle as magnificent presents as to 
that of Delphi. 

12. Oracle of Apollo at Claros, in the territory of Colophon. This oracle was of great 
celebrity, and continued to be consulted, even at the time of the Roman emperors. 

13. Oracle of Apollo at Grynea, in the territory of the Myrineeans. 

14. Oracle of Apollo at Gonnapceus, in Lesbos. 

15. Oracle of Apollo at Abdera. 

16. Oracle of Apollo at Delos, which was consulted only in summer. 

17. Oracle of Apollo at Patara, in Lycia, was consulted only in winter. The pro- 
phetess spent a night in the temple to receive the communications of the god. 

18. Oracle of Apollo at Telmessus. The priests of this temple occupied themselves 
chiefly with the interpretation of dreams. 

19. Oracle of Apollo at Mallos, in Cilicia. 

20. Oracle of the Sarpedonian Apollo, in Cilicia. 

21. Oracle of Apollo at Hybla, in Caria. 

22. Oracle of Apollo at Hiera Kome, on the Meander, a celebrated oracle, which spoke 
in good verses. 

II. ORACLES OF ZEUS. 

1. Oracle of Zeus at Olympla. In this as in the other oracles of Zeus, the god did 
not reveal himself by inspiration, but merely sent signs which were to be interpreted 
by men. Those who came to consult the oracle of Olympia, offered a victim, and the 
priest gave his answers from the nature of its several parts, or from accidental circum- 
stances accompanying the sacrifice. In early limes the oracle was much resorted to, 
but afterwards was almost entirely neglected, probably because oracles from the inspec- 
tion of victims might be obtained any where. The spot where the oracles were given 
at Olympia, was before the altar of Zeus. It was especially consulted by those who 
intended to take part A\ the Olympic games, but other subjects were brought before it 

2. Oracle of Zeus at Dodona. Here the oracle was given from sounds produced by 
the wind. The sanctuary was situated on an eminence. Although in a barbarous 
country, th ; oracle Was in close connection with Greece, and in early times much more 



142 APPENDIX. 



so than afterwards. Zeus himself, as well as the Dodonaeans, were reckoned among 
the Pelasgians, which is a proof of the ante-Hellenic existence of the worship of Zeus 
in these parts and perhaps of the oracle also. 

The oracle was given from lofty oaks covered with foliage, hence iEschylus mentions 
the speaking oaks of Dodona as great wonders. Beech-trees, however, are also men- 
tioned in connection with the Dodonaean oracle, which, as Hesiod said, dwelled in the 
stem of a beech tree. Hence we may infer that the oracle was not supposed to dwell 
in any single or particular tree, but in a grove of oaks and beeches. The will of the 
god was made manifest by the rustling of the wind through the leaves of the trees, 
which are therefore represented as eloquent tongues. In order to render the sounds 
produced by the winds more distinct, brazen vessels were suspended on the branches 
of the trees, which, being moved by the wind came in contact with each other, and 
thus sounded till they were stopped. Another mode of producing the sounds was this ; 
there were two columns at Dodona, one of which bore a metal basin, and the other a 
boy with a scourge in his hand ; the ends of the scourge consisted of small bones, and 
as they were moved by the wind, they knocked against the metal basin on the other 
column. According to other accounts, oracles were also obtained at Dodona through 
pigeons, which, sitting upon oak trees, pronounced the will of Zeus. The sounds in 
early times were interpreted by men, but afterwards, when the worship of Dione be- 
came connected with that of Zeus, it was done by two or three old women. There 
were, however, at all times, priests connected with the oracle, who on certain occasions 
interpreted the sounds. In the historical times, the oracle of Dodona had less influence 
than it appears to have had at an earlier period; but it was at all times inaccessible to 
bribes, and refused to lend its assistance to the Doric interest. It was chiefly con- 
sulted by the neighboring tribes, the iEtolians, Acarnanians, and Epirotae, and by those 
who would not go to Delphi on account of its partiality for the Dorians. There ap- 
pears to have been a very ancient connection between Dodona and the Boeotian Is- 
menion. 

The usual form in which the oracles were given at Dodona was in hexameters ; but 
some of the oracles yet remaining are in prose. In 219 B. C, the temple was de- 
stroyed by the iEtolians, and the sacred oaks were cut down. But the oracle continued 
to exist and to be consulted, and seems not to have been totally extinct until the third 
century of our era. In the time of Strabo, the Dodonaean prophetesses are expressly 
mentioned, though this oracle, like the rest, was already decaying. 

3. Oracle of Zeus Ammon, in an oasis in Libya, not far from the boundaries of Egypt. 
According to the traditions current at Dodona and Thebes in Egypt, it was founded in 
the latter city, and the god was represented at Thebes and in the Ammonium with the 
head of a ram. The Greeks became acquainted with this oracle through the Cyreneans, 
and Sparta was the first city of Greece which formed connections with it. Its example 
was followed by the Thebans, Olympians, Dodonaeans, Eleans and others, and the 
Athenians sent frequent theories to the Ammonium, even before 01. 91, and called 
one of their sacred vessels Ammonis. Temples of Zeus Ammon were now erected in 
several parts of Greece. His oracle in Libya was conducted by men who also gave 
the answers. On some occasions when they carried the statue about in procession, 
their number is said to have been eighty. In the time of Strabo the oracle was neg- 
lected and decayed. 



III. ORACLES OF OTHER GODS. 



The other gods who possessed oracles were consulted only concerning those particu- 
lar departments of the world and human life over which they presided. Demeter thus 



APPENDIX. 443 



gave oracles at Patrae in Achaia ; but only concerning the sick, whether their suffering* 
would end in death or recovery. Before the sanctuary of the goddess was a well sur- 
tounded by a wall. Into this well a mirror was let down by means of a rope so as to 
float upon the surface. Prayers were then performed and incense offered, when the 
image of the sick person was seen in the mirror, either in a state of recovery, or as a 
corpse. At Pharae, in Achaia, was an oracle of Hermes. His altar stood in the mar- 
ket-place. Here, incense was offered, oil-lamps were lighted before it, a copper coin 
was placed upon the altar, and after this, the question was put to the god by a whisper 
in his ear. The person who consulted shut his own ears, and immediately left the 
market-place. The first remark that he heard made by any one after leaving the mar- 
ket-place, was believed to imply the answer of Hermes. 

At Charax, or Acharaca, not far frornNysain Caria, was an oracle of Pluto and Cora. 
The two deities had here a temple and a grove, and near the latter was a subterraneous 
cave of a miraculous nature, called the cave of Charon ; for persons suffering from ill- 
ness, and placing confidence in the power of the gods, travelled to this place and re- 
mained for some time with experienced priests, who dwelt near the cave. These priests 
then slept a night in the cavern, and afterwards prescribed to their patients the remedies 
revealed to them in their dreams. Often, however, they took the patients into the cave, 
where they were kept quiet for several days, and without food. They were sometimes 
allowed to fall into the prophetic sleep, for which they were prepared, and received ad- 
vice of the priests. To all other persons the place was inaccessible and fatal There 
was an annual panegyris in this place, probably of the sick who sought relief from their 
sufferings. 

On the middle of the festive day, the young men of the gymnasium, naked and 
anointed, used to drive a bull into the cave, which, as soon as it had entered, fell down 
dead. 

At Epidaurus Limera, oracles are given at the festival of Ino.* The same goddess 
had an oracle at GEtylon, at which she made revelations in dreams to persons who 
slept a night in her sanctuary. Hera Acraa had an oracle between Lechaeon and PagaB. 

IV. ORACLES OF HEROES. 

1. Oracle of Amphiaraus, between Potniae and Thebes, where the hero was said to 
have been swallowed up by the earth. His sanctuary was surrounded by a wall, and 
adorned with columns, upon which birds never settled, and birds or cattle never fed in 
the neighborhood. The oracles were given to persons in their dreams, who, after hav- 
ing fasted one day and abstained from wine for three, were obliged to sleep in the tem- 
ple. The Thebans were not allowed to consult this oracle, having chosen to take the 
hero as their ally rather than their prophet. Another oracle of Amphiaraus was at 
Dropus, between Bceotia and Attica, which was most frequently consulted by the sick 
about the means of their recovery. Those who consulted it, were obliged to undergo 
lustrations, and to sacrifice a ram, on the skin of which they slept a night in the tem- 
ple, where, in their dreams, they expected the means of their recovery to be revealed 
to them. If they recovered, they were obliged to throw some pieces of money into the 
well of Amphiaraus, within his sanctuary. The oracle was said to have been founded 
by the Thebans. 

2. Oracle of Amphilochus, the son of Amphiaraus, who had an oracle at Mallos, in 
Cilicia, which Pausanias calls the most trustworthy of his time. 



An ancient hen ine. 



444 APPENDIX. 



3. Oracle of Trophonius, at Lebadeiae. in Baeotia. Those who wished to consult this 
oracle, had first to purify themselves by spending some days in the sanctuary. They 
must also live sober and pure, abstain from warm baths, but bathe in the river Hercyna, 
offer sacrifices to Trophonius and his children, to Apollo, King Zeus, Hera Heniocha, 
and to Demeter Europa, who was said to have nursed Trophonius. During these 
sacrifices, a soothsayer explained, from the intestines of the victims, whether Tropho- 
nius would be pleased to admit the consulter. Before entering the cave of Trophonius, 
the consulter must sacrifice a ram to Agamedes, and only in case of favorable signs in 
this sacrifice, was the hero thought to be pleased to admit the person into his cavp. 
What took place after this, was as follows : Two boys, thirteen years old, led him again 
to the river Hercyna, bathed and anointed him. The priests then made him drink 
from the well of oblivion, that he might forget all his former thoughts, and from the 
well of recollection, that he might remember the visions he should then have. They 
then showed him a mysterious representation of Trophonius, required him to worship 
it, and led him into the sanctuary dressed in linen garments, with girdles round his 
jody, and wearing a peculiar kind of shoes, which were customary at Lebadeiae. 
Within the sanctuary, which stood on an eminence, there was a cave, into which the 
person was now allowed to descend by means of a ladder. Close to the bottom, in the 
side of the cave, was an opening into which he put his feet ; the other parts of the 
body were then drawn into the opening by some invisible power. What the persons 
here saw was different at different times. They returned through the same opening at 
which they had entered. The priests then placed them on the throne of Mnemosyne, 
asked them what they had seen, and then led them back to the sanctuary of " the good 
spirit and good luck." As soon as they had recovered from their fear, they were 
obliged to write down their vision on a little tablet which was dedicated in the temple. 
This is the account given by Pausanias, who had descended into the cave, and writes 
as an eye-witness. The answers were probably given by the priests according to the 
report of what persons had seen in the cave. This oracle was held in very great es- 
teem, and did not become extinct until a very late period ; and though the arm> of 
Sulla had plundered the temple, the oracle was much consulted by the Romans, and, in 
the time of Plutarch, was the only one among the numerous Boeotian oracles that had 
not become silent. 

4. Oracle of Calchas, in Dannia, in Southern Italy. Here answers were given in 
dreams. Those who consulted the oracle, sacrificed a black ram, and slept a night in 
the temple, lying on the skin of the victim. 

5. Oracles of Asclepios. — These were very numerous. The most important and mosi 
celebrated was that of Epidaurus. His temple was here covered wdth votive tablets, 
on which persons had recorded their recovery after spending a night in the temple. In 
the temples of iEsculapius and Serapis, at Rome, recovery was likewise sought by 
incubatio in his temple. 

6. Oracle of Heracles, at Bura, in Achaia. Those who consulted it, prayed and put 
their questions to the god, and then cast four dice printed with figures, and the answev. 
was given according to the position of these figures. 

7. Oracle of Pasipkae, at Thalamiae, in Laconia, where answers were given in 
dreams, while persons spent the night in the temple. 

8. Oracle of Phrixos. in Iberia, near mount Caucasus, where no rams were allowed 
w be sacrificed. 



APPENDIX. 445 



V. ORACLES OF THE DEAD. 

The Oracl.es of the Dead, were those in which the spirits of the departed were called up 
Sacrifices were then offered to the gods cf the lower world. One of the most ancient 
and most celebrated places of this kind, was in the country of the Thesprotians, near 
lake Aornos. Another was at Heraclea on the Propontis. 

VI. ITALIAN ORACLES. 

Oracles in which a god revealed his will through an inspired individual, did not exist 
in Italy. The oracles of Calchas and iEsculapius, mentioned above, were of Greek 
origin, and the former was in a Greek heroum on mount Garganus. The Romans, in 
the ordinary course of things, did not feel the want of such oracles as those of Greece, 
for they had numerous other means to discover the will of the gods, such as Sibylline 
books, augury, haruspiees, signs in the heavens, and the like. The only Italian oracles 
known to us are the following : 

1. Oracle of Faun us. His oracles are said to have been given in the Saturnian verse, 
and collections of his vaticinia seem to have existed at an early period. The places 
where his oracles were given were two groves, the one in the neighborhood of the Tiber, 
round the wall of Albunea, and the other on the Aventine. Those who consulted the 
god in the grove of Albunea, which is said to have been resorted to by all the Italians, 
were obliged to observe the following points : The priest first offered a sheep and other 
sacrifices to the god. The skin of the victim was then spread on the ground, upon 
which the consulter was obliged to sleep during the night, after having his head thrice 
sprinkled with pure water from the well, and touched with the branch of a sacred beech 
tree. He was, moreover, obliged for several days previous to abstain from animal food 
and matrimonial connections, to be clothed in simple garments, and not to wear a ring 
on his fingers. After falling asleep on the skin, he was believed to receive his answer 
in wonderful visions, and in converse with the god himself. Ovid transfers some of the 
points observed to obtain the oracle on the Albunea, to the oracle on the Aventine. 
Both may have had much in common, but from the story which he relates of Numa, it 
seems clear, that on the Aventine different ceremonies were observed. 

2. Oracles of Fortuna existed in several Italian towns, especially in Latium, as at 
Antium and Prameste. In Antium two sisters Fortuna? were worshipped, and their 
statues bent forward when oracles were given. At Praeneste the oracles were derived 
from lots, consisting of sticks of oak with ancient characters graven upon them. These 
lots were said to have been found by a noble Praenestine of the name of Numerius Suf- 
fricius, inside of a rock which he had cleft open at the command of a dream by which 
he had been haunted. The lots, when an oracle was to be given, were shaken together 
by a boy. after which, one was drawn by the person who consulted the goddess. The 
lots of Prameste were, at least with the vulgar, in great esteem as late as the time of 
Cicero, while in other places of Latium they were mostly neglected. 

3. An Orach of Mars was, in very ancient times, according to Dionysius, at Tiora 
Matiena not far from Teate. The manner in which oracles were here given, resembled 
the pigeon oracle at Dodcna; for a woodpecker, a bird sacred to Mars, was settled 
upon a wooden column, where he pronounced the oracle. 

Smith's Greek and Roman Antiquities. 



INDEX. 



THE LATIN NAMES ARE IN ITALICS. 



PAGB 

Absyrtos. .... 366 

Abyla, 326 

Acheloos, - • - 86, 327 
Acheron, - • - 75, 158 
Acherusia - - - - 160 
Achilles, ----- 382 
Achilleus, - - - - 382 

Acis, 78 

Acnsios, - 89, 299, 303 
Actaeon, - - - - 68, 431 

Actor, 376 

Admetos, - - - 324, 362 

Adonis, 239 

Aurasios, - - - - 375 
^acos, - - - - 159, 342 
JEsea, - - - -367,398 
jEetes, - - 343,361,366 
.Egeus, - - - - 344, 349 
jEgialeus, - - - - 377 

jEgina, 419 

jEgis, 218 

^gisthos, - - - - 380 
-ffigle, - - - - 69,282 
vEgyptos, - --- 298 
jEneias, - - - - 84,143 

iEolos, 359 

JEsacos, 387 

jEsculapius, - - - 281 
Msvn, - - - - 360, 368 

JEstos, 265 

-Ethra, 345 

Aello, 79 

Agamemnon, 161, 380, 388 
Aganippe, - - - - 271 

Agaue, 371 

AgenOr, - - 89, 342, 370 

Aglaia, 267 

Aglaiopheme, - - - 400 

Agyrtes, 288 

Ajox, 388, 394 

Ai'des ------ 156 

Alcathoe - - - - 335 

Alcaeos, - - 89, 303, 312 

Alcestis, 324 

Alcimede, - - - - 360 
Alcinoos, - - - - 402 
Alcmena, - 89, 303, 312 
AlcyOneus, - - - - 83 
AlectO 67 



PAGE 

Aloeids, 412 

Alpheios, - - - - 86 
Althea, ----- 369 
Amaltheia, - - - - 106 
Amazones, - - 319, 393 
Ambrosia, - - 119, 260 
Amicilia, - - - - 292 
Amphiaraos, - - - 375 
AmphictyOn, - - 104. 192 
Amphion, - - - 372,' 417 
Amphitritc, - - - 77 
Amphitryon, - - 303, 312 
Amulius, - - - - 403 
Amycos, ----- 357 
Anaxos, ----- 312 
Ancaeos, ----- 365 
Anchises, - 239, 384, 429 
AndrogeOs, - - - - 343 
Andromache", - - 392, 397 
Andromeda, - - - 302 
Anemoi, ----- 92 

Antaea, 309 

Antaeos, ----- 323 

Anteros, 266 

Antigone, - - - 374. 377 
Antiope, - - - - 351, 372 
Aphareus, - - - - 359 
Aphrodite, - - -214,236 
ApollG, - - - -180,248 
Arachne, - - - - 416 
Archemorus, - - - 376 
Areiopagos, - - 67, 414 

Areope, 379 

Ares, 205, 365 

Arethusa, - - - 69, 88 

Arges, 83 

Argo, 362 

Argonauts, - - . - 362 
Argos, - - 89, 127, 138 

Argus, 89 

Ariadne, - - 335^ 343, 348 
Arion, - - - --- 377 

Aristaeos, - - 68, 84, 371 
Aristippe, - - - - 335 

Artemis, - - - - 84, 195 

Ascalaphos, - - - 206 
Asclepios, - - 281, 388 
Assaracos, - - - - 384 

Astarte, 241 



PAOB 

Asteria, 93 

Asterion, - - - - 343 

Astraea, 264 

Astraeos, - - - - 92, 95 
Astyanax, - - - - 392 
Astyoche, - - - - 384 
Atalanta, - - - 369, 416 
Ate, - - - 293, 313, 384 
Athamas, - 324, 359, 361 
Athena, - - 205, 208, 402 
Atlantides, - - - - 95 
Atlas, - - - 69, 95, 299 

Atreus, 379 

Atropos, ----- 61 

Attis, 433 

Augeas, ----- 318 
Aurora, - - - - 92, 424 
Autolicus, - - - 315, 394 
Autonoe - - - 68, 371 
Autumnus, - - - - 265 
Avernus, - - - - 159 

Bacchae, - - - - 341 
Bacchos, - - - - 333 
Bacchantes, - - - 336 
Baucis, ----- 426 
Bellerophon, 81, 105, 309 
BellerophontSs, - - 309 
Bellona, - - - - 205, 208 
Belos, - - 89, 298, 370 

Bia, 95 

Biton, 139 

Bceotia, - - - - 102, 361 

Boreas, 92 

BriareGs, - - - - 83 

Briseis, 390 

Brontes, 83 

Bucolion, - - - . 384 
Busiris, - - - - 32^ 

Cabeiri, - - - - 234, 255 

Cacus, 324 

Cadmos, - - 68, 89, 370 
Caduceus, - - - - 248 

Calais, 362 

Calchas, 388 

Callidice, - - - - 165 
Calliope, - - - - 268 
Callirrhoe, - * - 80, 384 






448 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Calpe, 326 

Calybe, 384 

Calydonian Chase, - 369 
Calypso, - - - 84, 95, 401 
Camence, - - - - 268 
Canephores, - - - 213 
Capaneus, - - - - 375 
Carmenta, - - - - 324 

Carpo, 265 

Cassandra, - - - - 385 
Cassiopeia, - - - - 302 
Castor, - - 314, 352, 357 
Cecrops, - - - -102,211 

CelaenG, 79 

Ceneus^ 383 

Centaurs, - 126,350,415 
Cephalos, - - - 312,424 
Cepheus, - - - - 3"02 
Cerberos, 80, 158, 160, 321 
Cereyon, - - - - 347 
■Ceres, - - - - 106, 163 

Ceto, 79 

Ceyx, 433 

Chaos, --- - 51, 54 
Charon, - - - 53, 75, 159 
Charites, - - - - 267 
Oharybdis, - - - 367, 400 
Chimaera, - - - 81, 310 
CheirCm, - 281,315,415 
ChrysaOr, - - - 80, 301 
Chryseis, .... 390 
Chrysippos, - - - 379 
Cilix, ... - 342, 370 
Cithseron, - 68,335,431 
Circe, - - 84, 367, 398 

Cleobis, 139 

Cleopatra, - - - - 384 

Clio, 268 

^lothO, 60 

;iymgng, - - - 95,416 
£lytemnestra, - 357, 380 

Clytia, 432 

Clytios, 384 

Cocalos, 345 

Cocytus, - - - - 158 
Ccelus, ----- 86 

Cceos, 83 

Coios, 93 

Compitalia, - - - - 258 

Comus, 282 

Connidas, - - - - 345 
Consuala, - - - - 151 

Consus, 151 

Cornucopia, - - - 87 
Corybantes, 148, 234, 255 
Cottos, ----- 83 
CreGn, - - 312, 369, 377 
Cretan Bull, - - - 319 
Cretheus, - - - - 359 

Creusa, 385 

'Jrios, - - - 83, 92, 95 
Oromedon, - - - - 83 
>omyonian Swine, - 346 
Cupido, - - - - 266. 435 



PAGE 

Curetes, - - 106,234 

Cvaneae, - - 364 

CybelS, - - • 148, 433 

Cycnos, - - - - 425 

Cyclopes, - 83, 106, 398 

Cytheraea, - - - - 238 

Cyparissos, - - - - 432 

Cyzicu/*, - - - . 363 

Daedalos, - - -344,413 
Daemons, - - - - 254 
Damastgs, - - - - 347 
Danae, - - 89, 297, 299 
Danaides, 123, 159, 245, 299, 
[419 
Danaos, - - - - 89, 298 

Daphne, 432 

Daphnephoria, - - - 184 
Dardanos, - - - 275, 384 
Deidameia, - - - - 388 
Deianeira, - - - - 327 

Deino, 79 

Dgioneus, - - - - 418 
Deiphobos, - - - - 385 
Delphi, - - - 189, 192 
Demeter. - - - - 163 
Demogorgon, - - - 54 
Deucalion. - 102, 343, 345 

Dia, - 418 

Diana, 88,94, 181, 195,317 

Dike, 265 

Diodes, 168 

Diomedes, - 205, 319, 388 
DionS, - - - - 182, 236 
Dionysia, - - - - 340 
Dionysos, - 84, 246, 333 
Dioscuri, - - - - 357 
Dirce, ----- 372 

Doris, 76 

Dryades, - - - 84, 259 
Dryas, - - - - 334, 383 
Dyctis, - - - - 299, 302 
Dymas, 385 

Echidna, - - - 80,373 

Echion, 371 

Egtria, 405 

Egyptos, - - - - 89 

Electra, - - - - 78, 380 
Electryon, - - -303,311 

Eleus, 312 

Eleusis, - - - - 165, 312 
Eleusinian Mysteries, 165 — 
[180 
Elysian Fields, - - 160 
Encelados, - - - - 83 
Endymion, - - 201, 428 
Enyu, - - - 79,205 

Eolus ... 105 

Eos, - - - - 92, 384 

Eosphoros, - - - - 92 
Epaphos, - - • 89,298 
Ephesus, - - - - 201 
Ephialtes, - - - - 412 



PAGE 

Epigones, - - - - 377 
Epimetheus, - - 95, 97 
EpOpeus, - - - - 372 
Erato, - - - -268,270 
Erebos, - - - 52, 75, 157 
Erectheus, - - - 93, 424 
Erichthonios, - - - 234 
Eridanos, - - - - 425 
Erigong, - - - - 335 
Erinnyts. - - - 66, 158 
Eriphyle,' - - - - 375 

Eris, 385 

Erisichthon, - - 169, 38 

Eros, 52, 266 

Erymanthian Boar, - 311 
Erytheia, - - - - 69 

Eryx, 415 

Eteocles, - - - 374, 375 

Euades, 341 

Euenos, 327 

Eueres, 312 

Eumseos, - 84, 181, 402 
Eumenides, - - - - 68 
Eumolpos, - - - 168, 314 
Eunomia, - - - 236, 265 
Euphrosyne, - - - 267 
EurOpa, - - 89,342,370 
Euros, - - - - - 401 
Euryale, - - - 79, 301 
Eurybia, - - - - 95 
Eurydice, - - - - 434 

Eurynomg, 267 

Eurystheus, 96, 303, 313, 379 
Eurytion, - - - - 320 
Eurvtos, - - - 314, 327 
Euterpe, - - - - 269 
Evander, - - - 121, 324 

Fates, 60 

Fauns, - - - - 58, 263 
Faustulus, - - - - 403 
Felicitas, - - - - 291 

Feronia, 287 

Fidelitas, - - - - 291 

Flora, 2S6 

Forlitudo, - - - - 289 
Fortuna, - - - - 283 
Fountains, - - - - 86 
Furies, - - - - 66, 331 

Galataea. 77 

Ganymede, - - - 232, 275 
Ganymedfis, 232, 275, 384 

Ge, 86, 105 

Gelanor, 298 

Genii, 253 

Geryon, - - - - 80 320 

Giants, '83 

Gigon, 255 

Glaucos, 343 

Golden Apples, - 96, 32C 
Golden Fleece, - - 361 
Corgons, - - - 79,306 
Graces, 267 



INDEX. 



44S 



PAGE 

Graeae, - - - - 79, SOI 
Gyes, ----- 83 

Had6s, - - - -156,419 
Hadreus, - - - - 255 
Haem6n, - - - 82, 377 
Halcyon^, - - - - 438 
Hamadryades, - - 84, 259 
Harmonia, - - - 206, 370 
Harpien, - - - - 78, 364 
H6be, ----- 275 
Hecab6, - - - - 385, 397 
Hecate, - - - - 93, 164 
Hecatompedon, - - 221 
Hector, - - 384, 389, 392 
Heimarmene, • - - 60 
Helena, 237, 351, 357, 380 
Heliades, - - - - 425 
Helicon, - - - 68, 270 
Helios, - - - - 93,425 
Hellanodicae, - - - 131 

Hell6, 361 

Hellen, 105 

Hephtestos, - - - 230 
Hera, - - - -113,136 
HeraclAs, 129,161,311,415 

Herasa, 139 

Hercules. - 99, 297, 311 
Hermaphrodites, - - 421 
Hormes,- - - - - 242 

Herse, 430 

HesionA - - - - 322, 384 
Hesperides, 53, 69, 96, 320 
Hestia, ----- 141 
Hiketaon, - - - - 384 
Hilaeira, - - - - 359 
Hippocrenfi, - - 150, 271 
Hippodamia, - - 350, 378 
Hippolytos, - - - 351 
Hippomedon, - - - 375 
Hippomenes, - - - 416 

Bonos, 290 

Horse, - - - - 236, 265 
Hyacinthos, - - - 431 
Hyades, - - - - - 95 
Hvdra, - - - - 80, 316 
B]/ems, ----- 265 

Hygeia, 282 

Hylas, - - - - 259, 322 
Hylreos, - - - - - 416 
Hyllos, ----- 329 

Hymen, 233 

Hymettns, - - - - 56 
Hyperbius, - - - - 876 
Hyperboreans, - - 434 
Hyperion. - - 83, 92, 93 
Hy perm nostra, - - 29v> 
Hypsipyle, - - -363, 376 

Janus, - - - - 107, 277 
Japetos, - - - 83, 95, 97 
Iasion, - - - - 105, 884 

lasp, 282 

Jason 859 



PAGE 

Iaaos, - - - - 90, 345 

Icarios, ----- 835 

Icaros, - - - - 345, 414 

Idaca, ----- 364 

Idsea, ----- 384 

Idas, ------ 358 

Idomeneus, - - 345, 388 
Ilaira, ----- 358 

Ilia, 403 

Ilion, 384 

Hob, - 384 

Inacbos, - - - 86, 88, 102 
Indigetes, - - - - 298 
lno, - - - 384, 361,370 

16, 89,811 

Iobates, 309 

Jocasta, - - - - 82, 373 

Iolaos, ----- 316 

Iole, ------ 327 

Iphicles, - - - - 313 

Iphigeneia, - - - 380, 889 
lphitos, - - - - 129, 327 

Irene, ----- 265 

Iris, - - - 92, 149, 166 

Ibis, 89, 197 

Ism£n£, ----- 374 
Isthmian Games, - - 153 

Itys, 423 

Juno, 89, 106, 113, 136, 249 
Jupiter, 84, 89, 113, 249, 297 
Jupiter ^Egiochus, - 218 
Jupiter Amnion, - - 118 
Jupiter Oapitolinus, - 120 
Jupiter Fulminant, - 121 
Jupiter Fulgetra, - - 121 
Jupiter Fluoius, - - 121 
Jupiter Tonoms, - - 121 
Juventas, - - - - 275 
lxion, - - - - 245, 418 

Keleos 168 

Keto, 205 

Krato*, ----- 95 
Kronos, - - - - 83, 105 

Labdacos, - - - - 372 
Lachesis, - - - - 61 
Laertes, ----- 402 
Lsestrygonians, - - 398 

Laios, 372 

Lampetia, - - - 400, 426 
Lampos, - - - - 384 
Laocoon, - - - - 395 
Laodamas, - - - - 377 
Laomedon, - - - - 322 
Lapiths, - - -350,415 
Lararia, ----- 258 
Larentui, - - - - 403 
Lares, - - - - 254, 256 
Lasthenes, - - - - 376 
Latona, - - • - 93, 418 
Leda, ----- 857 
Leimonaides, - - - 84 
Lcrmwan Hydra, - - SltJ 



PAGK 

Lethe, 158 

Leto, - - - - 358, 421 
Leucippe, - - - - 335 
Leucippos, - - - - 358 
Leucothea, - - - - 371 
Leucothoe, - - - - 432 
Libertas, - - - - 283 
Libya, ----- 298 
Lichas, ----- 328 
Limniades, - - - - 84 
Linus, ----- 314 
Lotus-eaters, - - - 397 
Luna, - - - - 92, 94 
Lupercus, - - - - 57 
Lupercalia, - - - - 57 
Luperci, ----- 57 
Libya, - - - . - 89 
Lycomedes, - - 352, 388 
Lycos, ----- 364 
Lycurgos, - - - 129, 334 
Lynceus, - 299, 358, 362 

Macbaon, - - - 282, 388 
Maenades, - - - - 341 
Maia, ----- 242 
Mars, - - - - 205, 249 
Marsyas, - - - 260, 274 
Medeia, ----- 36f- 
Medusa, - - - - 79, 300 

Megara, 326 

Megsera, - - - - 67 
Melanion, - - - - 375 
Melanippos, - -357,376 
Meleager, - - - 105, 369 
Meleagros, - - - 362, 369 
Meliades, - - - - 84 
Melicerta, - - - - 339 
MelicertSs, - - - 153, 371 
Melpomenfi, - - - 269 
Memnon, • - - - 394 
Menelaos, - 237, 380, 387 
Menoatios, - 95, 362, 388 
Mercurius, 89, 242, 249, 430 
MeropS, ----- 419 
Mestor, ----- 311 
Metaneira, » - - - 165 

Metis, 114 

Midas, ----- 420 

Miletos, ----- 342 

Milo,- ----- 422 

Minerva, . - - 208, 249 
Minos, - - 89, 159, 342 
Minotaur, • - - - 344 
Minyas, - • - - 335 

Mnemosyne, - - 83, 268 
Moirse, ----- 60 

Momus, ----- 74 

Morpheus, - - - 54, 73 
Mors, ----- 71 

Musagetes, - - - - 278 

Muses, - - - - 113, 268 

Myrtilos, - - - - 379 

Naiades, - - - 84, 259 



450 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Napseae, ----- 84 
Narcissos, - - - - 431 
Nausicaa, - - - - 402 
Nausithoos, - - - 402 
Nectar, ----- 114 
Neleus, ----- 359 
Nemaea, - - - - - 376 
Nemsean Lien, - 80, 316 
Netnesia, - r , - - 63 
Nemesis, - - - - 62 
Nephele, - - - - 361 
Neptunus, - - - 106, 149 
Nereides, - - - 76, 379 
ISereus, ----- 76 

Nessos, 327 

Nestor, ----- 383 
Nike, ----- 95 

Nile, 87 

Niobe, 418 

Nisos, ----- 344 
Notos, - - - - 92, 401 

Nox, - 53 

Numa, ----- 404 
Numitor, - - - - 403 
Nycteis,- - - - - 372 
Nycteas, - - - - 372 
Nymphs, - - - 84, 259 
Nympholepsy, - - 68 
Nysa, ----- 334 

Oceanides, - - - 78, 86 
Oceanos, - - 76, 80, 86 
Ocypete, - - - - 79 
Odysseus, - 84, 388, 397 
CEbalus, - - - - 357 
(Edipus, - - 68, 82, 373 

' CEneus, - - - - 327, 369 
(Enomaos, - - - 126, 378 

CEnone, 394 

Ogyges, ----- 102 

" Olympic Games, - - 123 
Olympos, - - - 119, 128 
Omphale, - - -246,328 
Opheltes, - - - - 376 
Orchamos, - - - - 432 
Orcus, - - - - 89, 824 
Oreiades, - - - - 84 
Oreithyia, - - - - 93 
9rest6s, - - - - 68, 380 
Orpheus, - - - 95, 862 
Ortharges, - - - - 255 
Orthrus, - - - - 80 
Ortygia, - - - - 87 

Ossa, 412 

Otos, 412 

Palaemon, - - - 153, 371 

Pales, 285 

Palladium, - - - - 219 
Pallas, - - - - 95,216 
Pallas-Athene, - - 209 
Pan, - - - - 54, 84, 420 
Panacea, - - - - 282 
Panathenaa, - - - 211 



PAGE 

Pandion, - - - - 423 
Pandora, - - - - 98 
Parcm, - - - - 53, 60 
Paris, - - 77, 237, 385 
Parthenon, - - - 221 
Parthenopaeos, - - 375 
Pasiphae, - - - - 343 
Patroclos, 62, 362, 388, 391 
Pax, ----- 283, 290 
PSgasos, - - - 80, 301 
Peitho, ----- 349 
Pelagon, - - - - 370 
Peleus, ----- 362 
Pelias, - - - - 359, 368 
Pelion, ----- 412 
Pelopidae, - - - - 378 
Pelopia, ----- 380 
Pelops, - - 126, 378, 417 
Penates, - - - 254, 256 
Penelope, - - - - 402 
Peneus, - - - - 86 
Pentathlon, - - - 132 
Penthesileia. - - - 393 
Pentheus, - 68, 325, 339 
Perphredo,- - - - 79 
Periphrates, - - - 346 
Persephone, 94, 157, 164 
Perses, - - - - 93, 95 
Perseus, -79,89,96,298 
Phaeaciaus, - - - 367, 401 
Phaedra, - - - 343, 351 
Phaethon, - - - - 425 
Phaethusa, - - - 400, 486 
Pheione, - - - - 95 
Phemonoe, - - - - 191 
Philemon, - - - - 426 
Philoctetes, - - 329, 388 
Philomela, - - - - 423 
Phineus, - - - 302, 364 
Phlegethon, - - - 158 
Phoebe, - - - 83, 93, 358 
Phobaeter, - - - - 73 
Phcebos- Apollo, - - 180 
Phoenice, - - - - 279 
Phoenix, - - - - 370 
Phorbas, - - - - 373 
Phorcys, - - - 79, 205 
Phoroneus, - - - 88 
Photaesae, - - - - 73 
Phrixos, - - - - 360 
Pirithoos, - 157, 321, 360 
Pittheus, -.--- 345 
Pleiades, - - - - 95 
Pluto, - - - -106,156 
Plutus, ----- 283 
Podaleirios, - - 282, 388 
Podarkes, - - -323,385 

Pceas, 329 

Pollux, - - - - 352, 357" 
Polybos, - - - - 373 
Polydectes, - - 299, 302 
Polydeukes, - - - 357 
Polydoros, - - - 370, 385 
Polyphemos, - - . 398 



PAGK 

Polyhymnia, - - 269, 270 
Polyneices, - - 374, 375 
Polyphemos, - - 78, 150 
Polyphontes, - - 373, 376 
Polyxene, - - - - 385 
Pomona, - - - - 286 
Pontos, - - - - 76, 95 
Porphyri6n, - - - 83 
Poseidon, - - 77, 89, 149 
Priamos, - 246, 323, 384 
Priapos, - - - - 261 
Procne, ----- 423 
Procris, ----- 424 
Procrustes, - - - 347 
Prestos, - - 299, 303, 309 
Prometheus, 95, 97, 311, 325 
Proserpina, - -157, 163 
Proteus,- - - - - 276 
Psyche, ----- 435 
Pterolaos, - - - - 312 
Pylades, - - - - 381 
Py ramus, - - - - 427 
Pyrrha, ----- 102 
Pyrrhus, - - - - 397 
Pythia, ----- 190 
Pythian Games, - - 191 
Pytho, ----- 182 
Python, ----- 183 

Remus, - -. - - - 403 

Ehadamanthys, - 159, 342 

Rhamnus, - - - - 63 

Ehea, - - - - 83, 105 

Ehcecos, - - - 85,416 

Ehcetos, - - - - 83 

Eivers, 86 

Romulus, - - - 58, 408 

Salii, 207 

Sahnaeis, - - - - 422 
Salmoneus, - - - 359 
Sarpedon, - - - 62, 342 

Saturn, 105 

Saturnalia, - - - - 107 
Satyrs, - - - - 58, 262 
Scamandros, 86, 235, 384 
Sciron, ----- 346 
Scylla, - - 344, 367, 400 
Selene, - - - 198, 359 
Semele, - - - - 334, 371 
Semones, - - - - 298 
Silenos, - - - - 260, 837 

Simois, 384 

Sinis, 846 

Sinon, ----- 895 
Sirens, - - - - 367, 899 
Sisyphos, 159, 309, 359, 419 

Sol, 93 

Sornnus, ----- 72 
Sphragitian Nymphs. 68 
Sphinx, - 80, 82, 87, 373 
Stag of Diana, - - 31 # 
SteropSs, - - - - 8i 
Sthenelos, - 303, 312, 888 



INDEX. 



451 



PAGE 

Stheino,- - - - 79, 301 
Strophades, - - - 364 
Strophios, - - - - 381 

Strymo, 384 

Styruphalides, - - 318 
Styx, - - - 75, 91, 95 
Sylvanus, - - - - 263 
Syinplegades, - - - 364 
Syrinx, 58 

Talos, ----- 413 
Tantalos, - 159, 378, 417 
Taphios, - - - - 312 
Tartaros, - - - - 157 
Teiresias, - - - 399, 400 
Telamon, - - - - 362 
Teleboans, - - - - 312 
Tfelegonos, - - - - 403 
Telemachos, - - - 402 
Telephassa, - - - 370 
Telesphorus, - - - 282 

TSreus, 423 

Terminus, - - - - 284 
Terpsichore, - - - 269 
Terra, - 52, 76, 86, 148 
Tethys, ----- 83 
Teucros, - - - - 384 
Thalia, - - - - 267, 269 
Thalld, 265 



PAGE 

Thamyris, - - - - 274 

Thasos, 370 

Thaumas, - - ' 78, 364 
Theban War, - - - 375 
Theia, - - - - 83, 92 
Thelxeipeia, - - - 400 
Themis, - - - 64, 83, 264 
Thersandros, - - 377, 888 
Thersites, - - - - 394 
Theseus, - 157, 321, 345 
Thestiaa, - - - - 357 
Thetis, - - 77, 334, 382 

Thisbe, 427 

Thoas, 363 

Thyestes, - - - - 379 
Thyone, - - - - 836 

Tiphys, 862 

Tisiphond, - - - - 67 
Titans, ----- 83 
Titanides, - - - - 83 
Tithones, - - - - 384 
Triptolemos, - - - 168 
Triton, - - - -867,411 

Troas, 882 

Troilos, 885 

Tros, 884 

Troy, 884 

Tychon, - - - - 255 
Tydeus, - - -869,875 



PAGE 

Tyndareos, - - - - 357 
Typhoeus, - - - 80, 92 
Tyresias, - - - - 40;3 
Tyro, 359 

Ulysses, 95, 150, 387, 394 

[397 

Urania, - 242, 269, 270 

Uranos, - - - - 86, 105 

Venus, - - 83, 236, 249 
Ver, T ----- 265 
Veritas, ----- 289 
Vertumnus, - - - 286 
Vesta, - - - - 141, 249 
Vestals,- - - - - 143 
Victory, - 95, 219, 287 
Virtus, ----- 290 
Vulcdnus, - - - 230, 249 

Winds, 92 

Zearchus, - - - - 371 
Zelos, ----- 95 
Zephyros, - - - 62, 431 

Zetes, 862 

Zethos, ----- 872 
Zeus, 113 



nFr oc 



